
Qass 
Book 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




Fenclon 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



BY 

CHARLES C. BOYER, Ph.D. 

VICE-PRINCIPAL, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, KUTZTOWN, PA. 

AUTHOR OF "WAVMARKS OF GENERAL HISTORY," "MODERN METHODS FOR MODERN 

TEACHERS," ETC. 



-«fc4' 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON 



LA^3 

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Copyright, 1919, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



» • • 

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)CI.A5.3 61?7 



PREFACE 

The thematic purpose of this volume is to show that 
historically education has been a progressive adjustment 
of claims in the exercise of human freedom. In the 
beginning, and as long as the human race was young, 
the rights of the individual were largely sacrificed to the 
claims of some stronger social whole, as in Egypt, India, 
Persia, and Sparta. In the Golden Age of Greece and 
the Roman Republic the individual attained to a larger 
measure of freedom, which, however, at length broke 
down completely when the repubUc gave way to the em- 
pire, into which Greece also became merged. 

When Christianity swept over the Roman Empire, 
it exalted the individual, with gain to the social whole. 
This exaltation was a gain to the social whole, as well 
as to the individual, because God's will became the ideal 
norm of human freedom. The disruption of the empire 
by the northern hordes paved the way for the despotic 
subordination of human freedom to the control of the 
Church as the human representative of God on earth. 
The Renaissance was an extreme revolt of the individual. 
In its first phase it was a reversion to Greek paganism; 
in its second, namely, the reformation of the sixteenth 
century, the Renaissance distinguished sharply between 
the institutionaHsm of the Church and the fundamental 
claims of religion, revolting only from the former and 
yielding with absolute surrender to the holy will of 
God, thus returning to the position of early Christianity. 

iii 



iv PREFACE 

The formalism into which the reformation as an educa- 
tional movement hardened, as in the gymnasiums of 
Sturm and the Jesuits, again defeated this ideal adjust- 
ment of claims, thus giving rise to new conflicts in behalf 
of human freedom. Among the most important post- 
reformation movements in behalf of human freedom 
we may enumerate reahsm and naturalism and the re- 
ligious concomitant of both, namely, pietism in its vari- 
ous forms. The educational movements beginning with 
Pestalozzianism all exalt the individual along lines that 
perfect the social whole and subordinate both to the ulti- 
mate purposes of God, with infinite gain to both the in- 
dividual and society. In short, the course of events, as 
we shall see, clearly shows that any system of education 
which failed to adjust human relations to divine purposes 
gave way in time to something more promising, and that 
the hope of finally adjusting all conflicting claims should 
be the teacher's supreme ideal. This thematic purpose 
of the volume should be kept in constant view, for only 
thus will the student of education attain to the profes- 
sional perspective, to that holier vision, that compelling 
inspiration, without which he cannot become morally 
identified with the great cause for which he is to labor and 
to pray. This ideahsm, this stimulating vision, is best 
attained by beginning at the beginning, and coming up to 
the nearer present without delay, thus attracting the 
learner by the novelty and imperfection of the far past 
and producing at the same time that sustained interest 
which proper approach to dramatic climax assures. 

It is evident that the study of educational ideals or 
problems must be based upon the study of the complex 
history which produces them. These historical connec- 
tions have been woven into the web and woof of our text. 



PREFACE V 

It must be the major task of the volume to exercise the 
student of education in this argument of cause and effect, 
the origin of educational problems and their solution in 
school systems. Such training should make him an ex- 
pert interpreter of his own profession and a contributor 
to the cause which he is to serve. We have tried to 
heighten this effect and to enrich the laboratory of our 
educational problems by bringing the student into inti- 
mate biographical relation with the fertile and forceful 
personahties to whom educational systems owe their 
origin, success, or failure. 

The practical purpose of the volume should be evident 
enough. The historical perspective to which such think- 
ing leads produces spiritual comradeship with the great 
reformers, and thus acts as a powerful professional 
stimulus. The unceasing challenge of the student's 
judgment in the solution of problems by the great re- 
formers, the measure of success to which they attained 
in the system of means to ends proposed, the estimate 
which he is constantly called upon to make as he passes 
from century to century, from nation to nation, from re- 
former to reformer, should certainly help to quaHfy him 
for the expert manipulation of means to ends in his own 
tasks. To insure this result as much as possible, the 
student of this volume is constantly required to compare 
the whole past with the present, find fitness or unfitness 
of means and ends, estimate ideals and their force, en- 
rich his conclusions by appeals to psychology, ethics, 
sociology, and real life. 

The writer acknowledges with profound respect the 
debt he owes to the authorities whom he consulted in the 
preparation of this volume, and to Doctor Ellwood P. 
Cubberley, who read the manuscript, for his courtesy, 



VI 



PREFACE 



appreciation, and helpful suggestions. The volume is 
dedicated with pleasure to thousands of graduates with 
whom long and happy association has made the volume 
possible, and to many thousands still on the way to the 
schoolroom. That the work may serve its purpose is 
his sincerest hope. 

Charles C. Boyer. 

State Normal School, 

KUTZTOWN, Pa., July i, 19 19. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Education of the Ancient Egyptians . 2 

12 
18 

25 

31 

35 

45 
81 



II. Education of the Ancient Chinese 

III. Education of the Ancient Hindus 

rV. Education of the Ancient Persians 

V. Education of the Ancient Shemites 

VI. Education of the Ancient Hebrews 

VII. Education of the Ancient Greeks 

VIII. Education of the Ancient Romans 



PART II 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

DC. Christian Education 100 

X. Christian Education (continued) . . . 123 
XI. The Renaissance 159 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 



PART III 

THE REFORMATION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. The Reformation i8o 

XIII. The Jansenists, the Christian Brothers, 

AND THE Pietists 221 



PART TV 

REALISM 

XIV. Realism 249 

PART V 

modern times 

XV. Naturalism 290 

XVI. The Psychological Movement .... 305 

XVII. Present National Systems of Education 336 

XVIII. The United States 374 

XIX. Tendencies 423 

Index 457 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

PART I 
EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENTS 

ORIENTAL NATIONS 

Even savages have to learn how to live, and this 
process is really education, but a description of such 
primitive education, however interesting it might be 
from an antiquarian standpoint, could have no legiti- 
mate place in a treatise designed for the normal school 
and college curriculum of the twentieth century. 

The same things have been said, and with some jus- 
tice, about the space devoted to the second stage of 
education, that of "barbarism," best represented by 
the Oriental types of China, Shemite Asia, India, Per- 
sia, Egypt, but there is a difference. The very "one- 
sidedness" and "strangeness" of these Oriental systems 
challenge the twentieth-century mind, and thus make 
them good "first subjects" in the great process of ap- 
perception by which we finally learn to "think" our 
century. But when that much has been said, we must 
admit that the briefest possible treatment is all that 
good pedagogy requires. 

1 



CHAPTER I 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 

THE EGYPTIANS 

The ancient Egyptians were Hamites from western 
Asia, from which starting-point their migration into 
the valley of the Nile was probably dictated by ease 
of access and wealth of prospects. The incomparable 
fertility of the soil produced by the annual overflow of 
the Nile assured rapid growth of population. Under 
the favorable condition of this habitat, the Egyptians 
attained to a high state of civilization centuries before 
all others. 

Kings. — The Hamites, known in Holy Writ as Cush- 
ites, had existed in little states along the shores of 
the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea, prob- 
ably for centuries before a powerful chief, Menes, made 
himself master of the Nile valley from the sea to the 
cataracts of Syene, and founded 5000 B. C, if not 
earlier, the first race of kings known to history. It was 
the beginning of a long succession of ambitious and 
glorious dynasties. 

About 2050, B. C, if not earlier, the Hyksos, or Shep- 
herd Kings, said to be the Hittites of the Bible, over- 
threw older kingdoms of Memphis and Thebes, and 
reigned until 1500 B.C. It was in this period that the 
Jews found a home in Egypt. 

About 1200 B. C. the great Amosis expelled the 
Shepherd Kings and established an empire. The great- 
est monarch of this age was Rameses II. He extended 

2 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 3 

the empire by conquests far beyond the confines of 
Egypt, and in his long reign of almost seventy years 
produced a golden age in architecture, sculpture, paint- 
ing, literature, science, philosophy, and commerce, etc. 

Presently, after several short revivals, as under 
Shishak who plundered Jerusalem in 970 B. C, and 
under the kings of the twenty-sixth dynasty, Psam- 
metichus and his son Necho, who established and main- 
tained most important relations with Greece, the em- 
pire began to decline. Necho died 601 B. C. 

Cambyses, King of Persia, conquered Egypt in 525 
B. C, and Alexander of Macedon, in 332 B. C. The 
history of ancient Egypt had closed. 

Religion. — Over and above all else, the one ever- 
present, all-explaining thing in the life and mind of 
ancient Egypt is religion. 

Among the Eg3^tians, as probably among all the 
ancients, primitive knowledge of a Supreme Being — 
the result of special revelation — became corrupted into 
a confusing system of nature-worship, but the Egyp- 
tians more than all other ancients reduced this nature- 
worship, in form at least, to a repulsive worship of 
animals. 

Gods. — An early recognition of the complex de- 
pendence of Egypt upon the Sun and the river Nile 
remains the fundamental conception of theology. 
This conception is seen, for example, in Osiris, the 
sun-god, who after a nature conflict with Typhon, 
or Set, the evil one, became the king and judge of 
Hades. The Nile fertiUty of Egypt is divinified in 
Isis, who thus becomes sun-goddess wife of Osiris. 
The seasonal power of the Sun, in turn creating and 
destroying, led to the conception of a mediating god, 



4 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Horus, son of Osiris and Isis. This attempt of the 
Egyptian imagination coming to the rescue of bafSed 
reason, in the explanation of nature, gave rise to a 
veritable multitude of gods, all of whom must be ap- 
peased and worshipped. 

Animal-Worship. — Perhaps this elaborate poly- 
theism failed to blot out completely, at least among 
the priests of a smaller inner circle, the cognition of a 
personal supremacy above and behind all nature as 
its first great cause. The Greek historian Herodotus 
leads us to think so; but be this as it may, the priest- 
hood as a whole, probably for selfish reasons, corrupted 
Egyptian religion still further by reducing it, as has 
been stated, to a repulsive worship of animals. The 
common people were taught to worship animals as 
symbols of deity, or as the actual residence of deity. 
It was in this sense that Osiris was worshipped in the 
Apis, or sacred ox. The cow was sacred to Isis, lions 
were emblems of Horus, the hippopotami to Set, or 
Typhon. Among other sacred animals were cats and 
dogs, and even crocodiles. 

Immortality. — Side by side with animal-worshipping 
polytheism in Egyptian religion was the belief in a 
future state of rewards and punishments. In other 
words — and this is a pretty chapter in psychology — ■ 
the Egyptian self-consciousness, looking out of its 
body-house, began to have a conception, vague as it 
may have continued to be, of soul-immortality, long 
before the Jewish race came into being. But, as we 
should expect from a people who would stoop to wor- 
ship animals, they looked upon this other life in won- 
derment — as in a dream — even as the Sphinx,* animal 
* Myers' " General History." 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 5 

in body, human-headed, looks out over Egypt. We 
are not surprised, therefore, to read in the papyrus 
"Book of the Dead" about a "Hall of Judgment," 
and about the "Transmigration of the Soul." There 
was a "Trial of the Dead" in the court of Osiris, where 
the cause of the soul must be pleaded, and the soul it- 
self weighed against a statue of justice, in the pres- 
ence of forty-two judges. The acquitted soul joined 
the throng of the blest. The soul rejected as unworthy 
of the Egyptian heaven was driven off and compelled 
to reappear on earth again, assuming the form of 
various animals until after a long course of expiation 
— thousands of years, perhaps — it might return puri- 
fied to its old body. The custom of carefully embalm- 
ing the body of the dead probably arose from this 
belief that the soul would return. The fact that this 
process, connected with elaborate burial services, be- 
came one of the strictest duties of the priests,* con- 
firms this idea. 

The religion of Egypt produced the best literature 
which Egypt has contributed, namely, the "Book of 
the Dead," already mentioned, and Prince Phtah- 
hotep's "Book on Morals." And yet this religion did 
not fill Egypt with gloom, as the songs and stories 
prove. 

Castes of Eg3rpt. — The minute intricacy with which 
religion was woven into the life of Egypt, by making 
the priests eminently necessary, placed them in efifect at 
the top of the social fabric, its masters and the shapers 
of its destiny. As a class the priests were, of course, 
very numerous and punctilious in their life. Never- 
theless they were not in any forbidding sense ascetic. 
* Lord's "Ancient Religions," pp. 38 and 39. 



6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The king himself belonged to them, and the high 
priest was usually a member of the royal family. 
They were emphatically and solely the learned class. 
The priesthood thus included the poets, the historians, 
the expounders and administrators of law, the physi- 
cians, and the magicians who did the wonders before 
Moses. 

Next to the priests of ancient Egypt stood the sol- 
diers. They constituted a powerful order, a well- 
organized militia, and supported by a fixed portion of 
land, free from all taxation. The soldier could till 
his own land when not under arms, but could follow 
no other occupation. 

The castes below the priests and soldiers had no civic 
privileges and could not own land. The farmer who 
tilled the land paid his rents in produce to the ruler or 
to the priests who owned it. The herdsmen were the 
lowest caste. The swineherds were regarded as out- 
casts and were not allowed to enter the temples. 

The castes, however, were not rigidly separate, as 
in India. Accordingly, "members of the different or- 
ders might intermarry, and the children pass from one 
caste to the other by hereditary occupation." 

Architecture.— The architecture of ancient Egypt, 
as we are prepared to see, was, like its literature and 
social system, prevailingly religious. The sublime re- 
mains of Egyptian architecture are not palaces but 
temples and tombs. The pyramids, the wonder of all 
centuries, were not simply monuments of ambitious 
kings, but tarrying-places for the soul till judgment be 
fulfilled. Sculpture and painting, the handmaids of 
architecture, were certainly dominated by the same 
overpowering sense of immortality. This conclusion 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 7 

is supported and emphasized by the invariable choice 
of enduring stone as building materials, and by the 
massiveness of the conceptions. 

EDUCATION 

The foregoing analysis of life and mind will enable 
us to understand Egyptian education as a system of 
means to ends. 

Ends in View. — The above analysis shows that, 
apart from the powerful educational influence of the 
Nile, religion as a means to happiness in the life that 
is and a life to be was the one thing needful. This 
primary purpose, including its stress on morahty, 
however, as we shall see, does not exclude or even be- 
little the second, or other purpose, namely, preparation 
for life in the land of the Nile. In this rainless land, the 
water poured into Egypt by the yearly inundations 
had to be conserved in artificial lakes, such as Lake 
Moeris may have been, and distributed in dry seasons 
east and west over the land by means of artificial 
waterways. Moreover, it was quite as necessary to 
defend the lowlands against destructive inundation. 
Thus arose engineering, including mathematics, and 
also the mechanics' arts. Agriculture, weaving, making 
woollen goods, ironware, glass, etc., were highly devel- 
oped. Commerce made writing and arithmetic great 
necessities. 

Primary Education. — In Egypt women were often 
held in honor, and as in Turanian lands and among the 
Jews, they were not wholly excluded from the privilege 
of education, but their opportunities, except at the 
court of the kings, were usually meagre. 



8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The state, as is well known, provided no educational 
system for the masses. For them life itself was an 
apprentice school, somewhat as among the chosen 
people in the early days, and in startling harmony with 
the modern principle of education that the accessible 
world of the child should be the school laboratory. 
The masses, however, owing to the interests of the 
priests, were not wholly neglected in reUgious and 
moral training. The needs of the artisan class must 
have called for at least a little writing and arithmetic. 

Higher Education. — In Egypt higher education was 
very special — the privilege of the priests and the nobles. 
The curriculum included writing, mathematics, en- 
gineering, architecture, law, medicine, astronomy, 
literature, art, religion, morals, etc. 

For many centuries, up to the time of the empire, as 
reliable historians tell us, the court of the king was 
the centre of Egyptian life, and thus became the place 
where the sons of the wealthy went to school with 
the sons of the king. The curriculum of these court 
schools, as we judge, must have been quite complete. 
Under the empire the curriculum became more special- 
ized, and schools of instruction were attached to the 
various departments of the government, and the de- 
partment officials supervised a kind of apprentice 
training. The priestly class, including all the great 
professions and the finer arts, obtained their education 
from ''temple colleges," and the priests themselves did 
the teaching. 

The methods of Egyptian education deserve atten- 
tion. Inasmuch as the hieroglyphics, about a thousand 
in number, varied all the way from pictures to phonetic 
letters, industry coupled with flogging became the ac- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 9 

companiments of drill. As soon as sufficient writing 
skill had been acquired, the boys were required to 
copy stories, poems, ethical precepts, rules of etiquette, 
and the Hke, but rather as a means to the end in 
"fine writing" than training in content. The lessons 
in arithmetic were extremely practical, running largely 
into weights and measures. The study of astronomy 
was not so successfully correlated with mathematics as 
among the Babylonians. The study of medicine was 
vitiated by admixture of magic and incantation. 

Estimate. — (i) The Egyptian valued the soul above 
the body and the future above the present, which as 
an educational ideal, can never be surpassed; but in 
practice the soul and the future were sacrificed to super- 
stition. (2) The Egyptian doctrine of a future state 
of rewards and punishments is, as psychology shows, 
the only sufficient moral motive, but in Egypt this 
motive was robbed of its moral worth by substituting 
ritual sacrifices for character as character. (3) The 
caste system produced professional experts, but sacri- 
ficed, though not completely, all the lower classes, 
and even the offered expert professional training guar- 
anteed no real freedom of individuality. (4) The edu- 
cational methods of ancient Egypt were not wholly 
bad, and yet science was never taught as science; 
art — even her highest art, architecture — never found 
its emancipation from stifif convention; philosophy, 
lofty in its aims, never found the true God. (5) The 
course of culture in ancient Egypt shows that all the 
great problems of life and mind were approached by 
this first race of men, and this fact in turn argues 
powerfully in favor of the doctrine of the oneness of 
origin of all races. 



» 



10 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers. 

3. Lord's "Ancient Religions." 

4. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

5. Graves' "History of Education Before the Middle Ages." 

6. Davidson's "History of Education." 



QUESTIONS 

1. Who were the ancient Egyptians? Account for the early 
civilization of this people. 

2. Discuss Menes as the founder of the first royal race in 
history. 

3. Account for the Hyksos, and explain the course of their 
reign in Egypt. 

4. Say what you can of Amosis and the greatness of the empire 
which he founded. 

5. Trace the decline and fall of ancient Egypt. 

6. What is the one ever-present, all-explaining thing in Egyp- 
tian life and mind? 

7. Tell how this probable belief of primitive Egypt in a 
Supreme Being became corrupted into a confusing system of 
nature-worship. 

8. Make the Egyptian priests responsible for the gross prac- 
tices of animal-worship. 

9. Explain, as a chapter in race psychology, the Egyptian 
behef in a future state of rewards and punishments, and the 
moral corruption of this doctrine. What literature did the belief 
produce ? 

10. Tell how the Egyptian priesthood attained its ascendancy 
and used it in the resulting caste system. 

11. Show in detail that the prevailing motive in Egyptian 
architecture and allied arts is religion. 

12. Account for the two correlated ends in view in Egyptian 
education, going into full details. 

13. Describe the curriculum and explain the methods of pri- 
mary education in Egypt, going into full details. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 11 

14. Explain the higher education of Egypt in the old kingdom 
and in the empire, going fully into the details of curriculum and 
method. 

15. Point out the worst and the best things in Egyptian edu- 
cation in the light of ethics and psychology. 

16. How do the attempts of this earliest race of civilizable 
people to solve great human problems afifect the modern con- 
clusion of evolution? 



CHAPTER II 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE 

THE CHINESE 

As a Race. — By race the Chinese are Turanians. 
They now occupy a country somewhat larger than the 
United States, with a population about four times as 
large. Authentic Chinese history, if we may beHeve 
their own writers, covers a period of four thousand 
years. The most conspicuous Chinese race quahty is 

/ self-complacency. Geographical isolation added dis- 
like of foreigners to self-complacency. Extreme non- 

yprogressiveness was the inevitable consequence. The 
race passed through a short youth, a period of inventive 
production, but this youth failed to grow up. After 
inventing gunpowder and printing, and other arts, 
the Chinese lapsed centuries ago into deep ruts. In 
time respect for ancestors became a sort of religion 
among them. For centuries it was enough for the 
Chinese to think what their ancestors thought, to love 
what they loved, and to do what they had done. This 
ancestral ideal finally found a voice in the famous 
Confucius. 

CONFUCIUS 

In the Making.— Confucius, meaning Kong the 
Teacher, is the name by which the Western world best 
knows the most famous Chinese sage and moralist. 
He was born about 550 B. C, the son of a prime min- 

12 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE 13 

ister of the province of Loo. At the age of fifteen he 
devoted himself to learning, and continued to be a 
student as long as he lived. He was deeply impressed 
by the moral and pohtical degeneracy of the age in 
which he lived, and thus became a reformer. 

Contributions. — (i) After filling several pohtical of- 
fices of trust with great credit to himself, Confucius, 
now twenty-two years of age, assumed the task of public 
teacher, and his house became a school for young 
men eager to study the teachings of the ancients. At 
thirty-five he began to tour the empire, teaching as he 
went. The tour lengthened into years — eight of them — 
fruitful years. Political preferment came to him again 
and again, but teaching and writing continued to be 
his passion. (2) "The Hterary labors of Confucius 
were very great, since he made the whole classical 
Uterature of China accessible to his countrymen. The 
fame of all preceding writers is merged in his own re- 
nown. His works have had the highest authority for 
more than two thousand years. They have been re- 
garded as the exponents of supreme wisdom, and 
adopted as text-books by all scholars and in all schools 
in that vast empire, which includes one-fourth of the 
human race. To all educated men the 'Book of 
Changes' (Yih-King), the 'Book of Poetry' (She- 
KJng), the 'Book of History' (Shoo-King), the 'Book 
of Rites' (Le-King), the 'Great Learning' (Ta-heo- 
King), showing the parental essence of all government, 
the 'Doctrine of the Mean' (Chung-yung), teaching 
the golden mean of conduct, and the ' Confucian Ana- 
lects ' (Lun-yu), recording his conversations, are su- 
preme authorities; to which must be added the works 
of Mencius, the greatest of his disciples. There is no 



14 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

record of any books that have exacted such supreme 
reverence in any nation as the works of Confucius, 
except the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Book of 
the Law among the Hebrews, and the Bible among 
Christians. What an influence for one man to have 
exerted on subsequent ages, who laid no claim to divin- 
ity or even originality — recognized as a man, worshipped 
as a god!" * 

When Che-Hwang-te, or Hoang-ti, the only progres- 
sive emperor China ever had (221 B. C), realized that 
the Confucian classics hindered his reforms, he buried 
their champions alive and ordered the books to be de- 
stroyed. Reverence for these books caused loving 
hearts to find hiding-places for them, and when the 
king died the books were brought out of their hiding- 
places, but it was not until the accession of the Han 
dynasty, 206 B. C, that the reigning emperor collected 
the scattered writings of the sage and exerted his vast 
power to secure the study of them throughout the 
schools of China. 

CHINESE SCHOOLS 

For centuries before and after Confucius primary 
education was highly esteemed, and practically uni- 
versal. And there were higher institutions of learning. 

Primary Schools. — The Chinese made no formal 
provisions for the education of girls. The boys began 
to go to school at the age of six or seven. Reading as 
the key to the classics was the subject par excellence. 
Writing, arithmetic, and such human relations as 
obedience, justice, and mercy were added to the course. 

* Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE 15 

There were no schoolhouses in the modern sense of 
the term. The school was kept in the house of the 
teacher or other convenient place. The pupils studied 
out loud, repeating the teacher's statements. The 
main purpose was to memorize, not to think. The 
Chinese language is ideographic rather than alphabetic. 
More than fifty thousand words or signs are employed, 
but they are not related by declension, comparison, or 
inflection. At least five thousand of these characters 
must be mastered in order to read well. It is not a 
wonder, therefore, that the great majority of Chinese 
boys left school very young, and that they were some- 
what disobedient in their school tasks. Inasmuch as 
disobedience at school was serious to the whole scheme 
of Chinese ancestral reverence it was sufficient cause 
for severe punishments, among them castigation, star- 
vation, and imprisonment. 

Higher Institutions. — The value which Chinese an- 
cestral consciousness placed upon such human relations 
as obedience to parents and rulers, social justice and 
personal righteousness made something like college 
courses preparing for leadership in the higher vocations 
simply indispensable. Talented young men would at- 
tach themselves to masters, and spend years in prepar- 
ing for a series of competitive examinations, the fourth 
and last of which was to be held at Pekin. Among the 
courses offered, as the Confucian classics show, were 
music, poetry, history, ethics, politics, medicine, as- 
tronomy, and mathematics. All the examinations 
were strictly competitive. The prospect of lucrative 
imperial service acted as a powerful stimulus. Thou- 
sands of candidates presented themselves at intervals 
of three years. The exajninations were written, and 



16 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

lasted for days. The candidates were supplied with 
the necessary writing materials and worked in isolated 
cells or apartments, strictly guarded. Those who 
failed might try again. The successful candidates who 
failed to secure government positions, took up such 
other vocations as their ancestral course of studies 
made possible. 

Estimate. — The fitness of means to ends in view in 
the Chinese system of education is very evident. But 
the perfection of human relations at which the system 
aimed is just as evidently impossible, apart from pro- 
found religious consciousness — and this was lamenta- 
bly absent from the Chinese ancestral scheme even 
after Confucian reformation had occurred, for while 
Confucius recognized the existence of a God, he said 
almost nothing about religion. The Chinese mind 
failed to realize that direct relation of the soul to a 
personal God is, as psychology shows, the only final 
guarantee of spiritual morality. While, therefore, we 
recognize what an opportunity Chinese higher educa- 
tion was for talented men, and that the commitment 
of their institutional life to these talented men made 
for institutional contentment, we must pronounce the 
system, what it has proved itself nationally, a tragic 
human failure. 

REFERENCES 

1. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

2. Graves' "History of Education Before the Middle Ages." 

QUESTIONS 

I. Who are the Chinese? Account for their non-progressive- 
ness. What accordingly was the Chinese ancestral ideal? 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE 17 

2. Who was Confucius? Consider Confucius "in the making." 
Give an account of his career as a teacher, and his work as a 
writer. Compare him with other famous personalities. 

3. Explain the perils to which Che-Hwang- te subjected Con- 
fucianism, and how it became the dominating influence of sub- 
sequent centuries. 

4. Visit a Chinese primary school. Explain the importance 
of reading in the school curriculum. Why so difficult? What 
were the results? Why was disobedience more serious than 
with us ? 

5. What were the ends in view in Chinese higher education? 
Consider the curriculum as means to ends. Discuss the whole 
system of competitive examinations. 

6. What were some of the evident merits of the Chinese sys- 
tem of education? What are the verdicts of psychology and 
history ? 



CHAPTER III 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS 
THE HINDUS 

About 2000 B. C. hardy, warlike Aryans from the 
table-lands of central Asia began to press through the 
passes of the Himalayas into the valleys of the Indus 
and Ganges Rivers. These invaders are known to us 
as Hindus. In time they conquered the non-Aryans, 
who had occupied the country before them. Those 
non-Aryans who refused to submit to the Aryan con- 
querors took to the mountains, and are known as the 
"Hill Tribes" to-day. The inevitable commingling 
of conquered and conqueror produced the mass of the 
population of present India. This Aryan migration 
had two far-reaching results, namely, loss of race- 
vigor, and social inequalities. 

Loss of Vigor. — The luxury and leisure which suc- 
ceeded the conquest of India with her wealth and soft- 
ness of climate changed a rugged and warlike race into 
a pacific and contemplative race. This explains why 
the Hindu conquerors were subsequently conquered 
themselves, first by Alexander the Great, 327 B. C, 
then by the Mohammedans in the tenth century of the 
Christian era, by the Mongols in the thirteenth, and 
last of all by the English, to whom India gave a new 
empire of two hundred million souls. 

Castes of India.— The Aryan conquest of non-Aryan 
India, had a second far-reaching result, namely, a 

18 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS 19 

rigorous caste system. The Hindus as a race are 
deeply religious. Thus it came to pass that although 
the military class was in the ascendancy during the 
long period of invasion, the priestly class, aided by cli- 
mate, gradually became the dominant class. The 
Hindu priests are called "Brahmans," after Brahma 
their God. This "learned class" comprises not only 
priests, but lawyers, physicians, teachers, scholars, 
etc. Next to the Brahmans come the ''Kshatriyas," 
comprising not only the miUtary but the governing 
class. The third caste, consisting of farmers, artisans, 
and merchants, and constituting the backbone of 
India, are called "Vaisyas." The conquered non- 
Aryans, or slaves, are called "Sudras." The very an- 
cient book of Hindu laws, called the ''Institutes of 
Menu," regulates these class divisions, a violation of 
which produces the ''Pariah," or outcast. 

Brahmanism. — Hindu poets writing in Sanskrit, the 
oldest Aryan language, if not the oldest of all languages, 
produced poems, or hymns, known as Vedas. These 
poems are really the sacred books of the Hindu re- 
ligion, or Brahmanism. The Vedas show that Hin- 
duism, or Brahmanism, originally rests upon the beHef 
in an all-pervading mind, from which the universe took 
its rise. From this vague deism the Vedas slip uncon- 
sciously into the beHef in Brahma as the creating god, 
Vishnu the preserving god, and Siva the destroying 
god. "This was further corrupted into pantheism, 
which sees a god in everything — in sun, moon, stars, 
the Ganges, the Indus, beasts, and flowers." * 

"In its higher development Brahmanism holds that 
the human soul is of the same nature with the supreme 

* Sanderson's "World History," p. 19. 



20 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

being, and that its destiny is to be reunited with him. 
This led to the great doctrine of metempsychosis, or 
transmigration of souls, which is necessary to purify 
the human soul for union with the divine. Accord- 
ing to this view man's soul in this world is united to 
the body in a state of trial, which needs prayer, penance, 
sacrifice, and purification. If these are neglected then 
the human soul, after death, is joined to the body of 
some lower animal, and begins a fresh course of pro- 
bation. In popular practice, gross idolatry and super- 
stition, with a cowardly and selfish disregard of human 
life, have largely prevailed alongside of the philosophi- 
cal tenets of the educated class." * 

Thus "Brahmanism became corrupted. Like the 
Mosaic Law, under the sedulous care of the sacerdotal 
orders it ripened into a most burdensome ritualism. 
With the supposed sacredness of his person, and with 
the laws made in his favor, the Brahman became in- 
tolerable to the people, who were ground down by sac- 
rifices, expiatory offerings, and wearisome and minute 
ceremonies of worship. Caste destroyed all ideas of 
brotherhood; it robbed the soul of its affections and 
aspirations. Like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, 
the Brahmans became the oppressors of the people." f 
This corrupted Brahmanism was reformed, or restored 
to its pristine form with its logical conclusions, by 
Buddha. 

Buddha. — (i) Buddha was not a Brahman, but a 
Hindu prince, and therefore of the Kshatriya caste. 
He was born about 550 B. C, and reared in a dis- 
trict where Brahmanic teaching was greatly modified 

* Sanderson's "World History," p. 20. 
+ " Beacon Lights of History," p. 80. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS 21 

by contact with older native religion.* His father 
brought him up in ignorance of the wickedness and 
sorrows of the world. When in his young manhood 
he began to study India and its sorrows, he gave up his 
princely life and became a hermit. After years of 
profound contemplation and painful self-torture, he 
became convinced that not self-torture but philan- 
thropy, self-control, and other moral virtues were the 
way to soul-peace, or Nirvana. Henceforth he gave 
up his princely name, Gautama, and called himself 
Buddha, meaning " the enlightened one." (2) He spent 
the rest of his life — almost half a century — as a teacher, 
wandering from city to city, gathering about himself 
disciples, and striving to make the world happier 
through goodness and kindness and brotherhood. He 
denounced the caste system and the distinction be- 
tween Aryan and non-Aryan as a delusion. Neither 
wealth, nor poverty, nor sex, nor any other condition 
was to be a barrier to hope and opportunity. (3) For 
a while Buddhism swept corrupted Brahmanism fairly 
out of place in India, but although temples were built 
for Buddha, and he was worshipped as a god, Brah- 
manism regained its supremacy in India. 

HINDU SCHOOLS 

Brahmanism defines the final purposes of Hindu 
education in terms of caste, and thus determines both 
curriculum and form. 

Ends in View. — The primary purpose of Hindu 
education was to fit the individual for life in the par- 
ticular class into which he was born. The curriculum 
* Davidson, "History of Education," p. 65. 



22 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and form of education were, therefore, subject strictly 
to the special ends in view in each caste, namely, re- 
ligious and moral supremacy, administrative and mili- 
tary functions, agriculture, art, commerce, and the 
like. Women and Sudras were rigorously excluded 
from all formal educational privileges. Birth rather 
than talent, station rather than individuality, domi- 
nated over hope. 

Primary Schools. — The Hindu boy began to go to 
school at the usual age. He took up reading, writing, 
and arithmetic, but the subject par excellence was re- 
ligion. The school-day began and ended with impres- 
sive religious ceremonies. School was kept in the 
open air, or when that was not permissible, in a cov- 
ered shed. The teacher sat on a grass mat, and the 
pupils squatted round about him on the ground. The 
Vedas furnished reading lessons. These were dic- 
tated by the teacher and repeated after a droning 
fashion until memory was master. The children wrote 
on sand, using the finger or a stick. Later on leaves 
were used instead of sand, and presently paper with 
ink. 

The castes were kept separate, but in any case the 
teacher had to be a Brahman. The pupils were taught 
to be modest and polite, but discipline was mild. 
Drowsiness rather than disobedience was the only 
serious obstacle to progress. 

Higher Education. — A course covering about twelve 
years, and including such subjects as grammar, litera- 
ture, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law, and re- 
ligion, was open to the Brahman's sons. Well-planned 
vocational courses were open to the governing and 
military classes. Provisions were made for the educa- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS 23 

tion of artisans, merchants, and even farmers, but these 
were usually more on the order of apprenticeships. 

Estimate. — There can be no doubt about the fitness 
of means to ends in Hindu education. The extreme 
self-effacement to which Buddhism tended was, after 
all, a sore offense to the immortality dimly evident 
even to the pagan consciousness, and the dreamy 
quietism to which the body of Buddha's teaching drove 
its most earnest devotees throttled the active powers 
of the soul into lamentable slavery. No wonder that 
Buddhism could not hold its own against Brahmanism 
— no wonder that Buddhism finds its conqueror in 
Christ ! It provides the masses with the fundamentals 
of vocational life and religious morality, and thus pro- 
duces a sort of static social stability. It provides the 
great professions with an admirable curriculum, and 
then makes them the responsible overseers of all lower 
classes. The system has produced marvellous results 
in speculative philosophy, in mathematics, and even 
in science. 

The charges against the Hindu system are serious 
in the extreme. It offers almost everything to the 
few, regardless of personal worth or talent, and crushes 
individuality, however promising, in all the other 
classes. Religious ritualism has filled India with 
idolatry and inhumanity. The exclusion of physical 
culture from the school curriculum has helped to re- 
duce India to a helpless subject race. The sacrifice 
of Hindu woman, soul and body, is indescribably 
pathetic. 



24 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



REFERENCES 

1. Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers," vol. I. 

2. "Old Pagan Civilization," "Beacon Lights of History." 

3. Davidson's "History of Education." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Who are the Hindus? Explain their migration into India, 
and the loss of race-vigor. 

2. Account for the Hindu caste system, and describe the 
castes in detail. 

3. To what writings do we owe our knowledge of Hindu Brah- 
manism ? Explain the transition from vague deism in the Vedas 
to polytheism and pantheism. 

4. What, according to Brahmanism, is the relation of the 
human soul to the supreme being? Explain the doctrine of 
transmigration of souls. 

5. Into what corruptions did Brahmanism degenerate? 

6. Who was Buddha? Explain Buddha "in the making." 
What did he finally come to believe ? How did he serve India ? 
Explain his failure. 

7. What is the primary purpose in Hindu education? What 
are the specific purposes? 

8. Visit a primary school of India, going thoroughly into the 
details of curriculum, method, and discipline. 

9. Discuss higher education, considering fitness of curriculum 
and form to special ends in view. 

10. What were the best things and the worst things in the 
Hindu system, as seen in the light of sociology, Christianity, and 
world-changes ? 



CHAPTER IV 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS 

THE PERSIANS 

The Medes preceded the Persians as a race, but were 
conquered by the latter and merged into them. The 
Persians, like the Medes, were of the same vigorous 
Aryan stock as the Hindus, but by making rugged 
Iran their habitat they escaped the loss of vigor which 
the Hindus suffered, and matured into a nation of 
warriors. Monarchy was the natural result. 

Kings. — The one great ambition of the Persian 
kings was to build a world empire. Cyrus the Great 
added Media, Lydia, and Babylonia to Persia. His 
son Cambyses added Egypt. Darius extended the 
kingdom eastward to the Indus, and westward to the 
Hellespont, and introduced provincial governors, called 
satraps, to weld the distant parts of his world together 
more firmly. When the armies of his son Xerxes were 
hurled back from Greece, Persian ambition had re- 
ceived a blow from which, although it reappeared in 
Chosroes I, it never fully recovered. 

In Persia the king was the state — his decree was law. 
But such was the sense of Persian justice, that the 
Persians as a social whole would not permit their am- 
bitious kings to arrogate all power to themselves. To 
this end there was created a kind of king's cabinet, 
or council of empire, composed of princes and priests, 
or magi. The king was obliged to select his cabinet 

25 



26 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

princes from the feudal houses that arose from wars 
and conquests. They were thus the accredited rep- 
resentatives of the Persian nobility, and by checking 
the despotism which inevitably attaches to world- 
empire, they were, in effect, the political representatives 
of the Persian social whole. The priests, or magi, in 
the king's cabinet were the representatives of God. 
No other representatives could have satisfied the re- 
ligious sense of the Persians. In this conviction the 
Persian consciousness had found the only final guar- 
antee of personal and social morals, as we moderns 
know more completely. 

Religion. — At their best, the Persians had arrived 
at religious concepts startlingly like those of the 
Hebrews, or Jews. They beHeved in one supreme, 
eternal God, who created all things, beneficent and all- 
wise, called Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda) ; and in a personal 
devil, called Ahriman (Angro-mainyus), the black or 
dark intelligence, the creator of all that is evil, both 
moral and physical. They also beUeved that Ormazd 
and Ahriman were in perpetual conflict, but that 
Ormazd would finally prevail over Ahriman, and that 
the highest duty of man was to take sides with 
Ormazd in hoUness, justice, and worship. In time 
corruption set in, and magism, or the worship of the 
elements of nature, became general. The most com- 
mon form of worship was that of fire. The Persians 
rejected all images, and built no temples. 

A collection of wondrously beautiful poems, called 
''Avesta," embodies the above beliefs in much detail. 
The magi corrupted the Avesta with enlarging com- 
mentaries. They wrote in Zend, a Sanskrit dialect. 
This enlarged Avesta is therefore called Zend-Avesta, 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS 27 

and may be regarded as the bible of the Persians. 
The author of the beautiful Avesta was Zoroaster. 

Zoroaster. — Almost nothing is known about the life 
of Zoroaster. Some authorities consider him a myth. 
A tablet recently unearthed in Greece contains an 
account of his life and doctrines, and seems to establish 
the man's historical reality. There are those who 
think he must have been a contemporary of Moses. 
Be that as it may, Zoroaster may indeed be called the 
Moses of the Persians, for, like Moses, he perpetuated 
a knowledge of God and his requirements through his 
writings, and thus helped to make the Persians a peo- 
ple greatly like the Jews in their morality. 

EDUCATION 

What has been said about the Persians themselves 
prepares us to understand their system of education. 

Ends in View. — What Persia wanted most was sol- 
diers and loyal subjects. To this royal ambition the 
social whole was to be somewhat sacrificed, but not 
without justice, and generally speaking to the satisfac- 
tion of the individual, for war and conquest brought 
luxury and plenty and complacency. The education 
of princes and priests, like that of soldiers and sub- 
jects, was most evidently only a means to an end. 

State Education. — (i) No formal education was pro- 
vided for the Persian woman. She was to be the 
mother of children and a faithful home slave. At the 
age of seven her boys were taken from home and edu- 
cated by the state for the state. They were quartered 
in large public institutions and provided with the sim- 
ple food and clothing suited to the purpose. The 



28 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

teachers, or overseers, were men who had served the 
state as soldiers up to the age of fifty, and were selected 
as teachers on account of special competence in knowl- 
edge and morals. Reading and writing were taught 
to some extent; but, as special means to ends in view, 
physical culture and morals constituted the main 
curriculum. Running, riding on horseback, shooting 
with bow and arrow, were some of the physical exer- 
cises. 

Religious proverbs and prayers were taught in con- 
nection with such moral habits as obedience, courage, 
truthfulness, and justice. Cyrus the Great once told 
his mother how he had learned an impressive lesson 
in justice. The boys were playing "court," and Cyrus 
was judge. A bigger boy was brought to trial for 
appropriating the coat of a smaller boy because the 
exchange of coats was "a better fit." Cyrus as judge 
approved of this appropriation, whereupon the over- 
seer beat him and reversed the decision because the 
question at issue was not whom do the coats fit, but 
to whom do they belong. 

(2) From fifteen to twenty-five the Persian boy was 
subjected to systematic mihtary training, after which 
he became an integral part of the army, serving the 
state up to the age of fifty. 

Higher Education. — There was no such thing as 
higher education for the Persian masses. But the high- 
est interests of the state made higher education an 
absolute necessity in the case of sons of nobles and 
priests. As already indicated, higher education was 
the function of the priests, or magi. They were the 
^'learned class" in a special sense. They knew some- 
thing of astronomy in the form of astrology, and of 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS 29 

chemistry in the form of alchemy. But their special 
function was to perpetuate a learned priesthood in 
the interest of religion as religion, and in the interests 
of the state as a moral institution constantly in danger 
of corruption by ambition. It was this very corrup- 
tion that finally doomed the Persian Empire to an 
early and disgraceful fall. 

Estimate. — The merits of the Persian system cannot 
be denied. Here was perfect fitness of curriculum 
and form as means to end. The self-representation 
of the Persians as a social whole in the form of the 
king's cabinet is startlingly suggestive of modern 
social evolution. 

The serious side to the Persian system was the de- 
liberate neglect of the means of popular intelligence, 
namely reading and writing. As a result, Persia con- 
tributed almost nothing to literature and science, and 
her only imitable art is palace architecture. From 
the fate of Persia we learn the great truth that religion 
and morals lose their power over a people weak in 
intellectual culture, and that other now almost self- 
evident truth that even physical culture not intellec- 
tualized is only of a lower order. To these verdicts 
must be added this other, that the slavish subjection 
of woman, by hindering the moral function of the 
home, helped very materially to bring about the moral 
and political fall of Persia. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

3. Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers." 

4. Davidson's "History of Education." 

5. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 



30 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



QUESTIONS 

1. Who were the ancient Persians? Why were they a race 
of warriors? 

2. What was the great ambition of the Persian kings? Ex- 
plain the course of empire-building. 

3. What was the function of the king's cabinet? How care- 
fully was this function guarded? 

4. What were the religious beliefs of the Persians at their 
best ? What was magism ? How did Mazdeism serve the high- 
est interests of Persia? 

5. Describe the Avesta and the later Zend-Avesta ? Who was 
Zoroaster ? Compare him with Moses and other great teachers. 

6. What was the final purpose of Persian education? Into 
what intermediate purposes can you analyze the final purpose? 

7. Describe the education of the Persian masses, accounting 
for the whole curriculum, its institutional character, the employ- 
ment of teachers, etc. 

8. Describe the higher education of Persian priests and princes, 
accounting especially for the curriculum and the teachers. 

9. What were the best things and the worst things in Per- 
sian education, judging from the standpoints of logical fitness, 
social evolution, contributions to after-ages, and the fate of 
empires. 



CHAPTER V 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT SHEMITES 
THE SHEMITES 

"In the Semitic spirit there appear two opposite 
elements, an irresistible tendency toward self-assertion 
. . . and the most intense subjectivity, coupled with a 
wealth of dreamy emotionality, which often flames up 
into the loftiest enthusiasm." It is with these words 
that a great German, Doctor Schmidt, in his "History 
of Pedagogy," sums up the conspicuous qualities of 
the race, and at the same time furnishes the explana- 
tion of their contributions to civilization. 

It was not until Turanian culture had attained to 
considerable heights in the regions of Sumer and Accad 
that semisavage Shemites from the Arabian desert 
came and took possession. After much fighting they 
became masters of all Mesopotamia. Their first fixed 
habitat was Chaldea. Here ''they built themselves 
towns in the midst of the Sumerians and Accadians, 
gradually adopting their higher civilization, and with 
it their system of writing, their religious literature, 
and their gods, and finally combining into a great 
Chaldeo-Semitic kingdom, with its centre at Babil 
(Babylon). Later on, they spread northward from 
Chaldea and founded the powerful empire of Assyria, 
with its centre first at Ashur, later at Nineveh. From 
about 2000 B. C. to 606 B. C, Assyria was the more 
powerful state, extending its sway over the whole of 

31 



32 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

western Asia, but after the latter date Babylonia once 
more rose to eminence, only to succumb in less than a 
century to the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great, 
538 B. C." * The same fate which overtook imperial 
Rome when she had conquered Greece overtook these 
empire-building Assyrio-Babylonians — they were con- 
quered themselves. The priestly Turanian civiliza- 
tion into which they had come as masters at length 
mastered them. 

ASSYRIO-BABYLONIAN EDUCATION 

In accordance with the facts Just stated, we may 
define their system as priestly education. 

Ends in View. — There was only one great end in 
view, and that was education for the priest by the 
priest, but the priest was the scholar in other spheres 
as well as in his own, and this fact enlarged the curric- 
ulum very considerably. 

Curriculum. — We know almost nothing about pri- 
mary education in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, except 
that there must have been such a thing, preparing at 
least for the higher education of the priests. The 
range of subjects was strikingly wide, including read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, astronomy, music, literature, 
philology, architecture, painting, sculpture, etc. In 
his superb summing up of the whole matter Doctor 
Davidson shows that most of these studies, together 
with others, were carried to surprising perfection. 

Method. — Higher education was given in regular 
schools or colleges in connection with the temples and 
libraries. Their language, like that of Egypt, was ide- 

* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 50. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT SHEMITES 33 

ographic. The writing process consisted of cuneiform 
or wedge-shaped impressions made upon soft clay- 
tablets. The lessons in reading and writing must have 
taxed memory and patience to the utmost. Many 
tablets with school exercises on them have been found 
in Babylon. It is thought that such advances as the 
Assyrio-Babylonians made in astronomy must have 
required telescopes. The complete appropriation of 
Babylonian literature by the Assyrians was accom- 
plished by the help of grammar and lexicons, or dic- 
tionaries. 

Estimate. — Remnants of architecture, art, and liter- 
ature in the great museums of the world speak elo- 
quently of the power and luxury and culture to which 
the Assyrio-Babylonians attained. Their literature in 
particular, "consisting chiefly of epic and lyric poetry 
of a religious character, was marked by sublimity, and 
must have exerted a powerful influence." Unhappily, 
however, sin was not considered as something wrong 
in itself, but rather as an offense against some unseen 
avenging power. In this way craven fear rather than 
moral freedom became the ethical motive. The re- 
sults were, of course, disastrous, not only to the Assyrio- 
Babylonians but to early Europe, where these false 
impressions were carried. 

REFERENCES 



1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Graves' "History of Education Before the Middle Ages." 

3. Davidson's "History of Education." 

QUESTIONS 

I. Who were the ancient Shemites? What conspicuous race 
qualities help to explain their contributions to civilization? 



34 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

2. What was the origin of the Babylonians and Assyrians? 
Explain the course of empire. 

3. To what extent did the Shemites succumb to the civiliza- 
tion of the conquered Turanians? 

4. What, therefore, became the one great purpose of Assyrio- 
Babylonian education? 

5. Account for the extensive curriculum of this priestly sys- 
tem. If possible, study Davidson's masterly summing up. 

6. Explain the educational methods of the Assyrio-Babylonians 
pretty fully. 

7. What were the contributions of Assyrio-Babylonian edu- 
cation to material civilization? Why was their moral ideal so 
serious ? 



CHAPTER VI 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS 

THE HEBREWS 

The Phoenicians and Hebrews were of the same 
Shemitic stock as the Assyrio-Babylonians, both na- 
tions beginning in Shemitic migrations from the neigh- 
borhood of Babylon. The Phoenicians had already 
made that coast of the Mediterranean Sea which faces 
the Lebanon Mountains their habitat when Abraham 
arrived in the twenty- third century B. C. Their com- 
mercial and colonial history is well known, and could 
have been achieved only by a people of intelligence and 
indomitable energy; but apart from the fact that they 
gave the world the science of navigation and a phonetic 
alphabet, they have contributed nothing for which we 
owe them praise. On the contrary, the immorality of 
their ideals is abhorrent, and accounts not only for 
their fate at the hands of Rome, but also for their 
race oblivion. 

The Hebrews, however, as we shall see, deserve our 
profoundest thought, and serve as a perpetual moral 
type for all the world. They are the descendants of 
Abraham, a Shemite from "Ur of the Chaldees," who, 
by divine injunction, migrated with his family to 
Canaan, now called Palestine, about 2300 B. C. 
' In Egypt. — After a brief nomadic sojourn in Canaan, 
his people as a whole sought a new habitat in the fer- 
tile land of Egypt. This was in the time of his grand- 

35 



36 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

son Jacob, to whom and his sons a Hyksos king, also 
a Semite, assigned the pastureland of Goshen, where 
they flourished and were happy. After the expulsion 
of the Hyksos, a Hamite king, "who knew not Joseph," 
reduced the Hebrews to slavery. From this slavery 
God delivered his people by the hand of Moses, his 
servant. The stirring events of the exodus, or de- 
parture from Egypt, are familiar history. The exodus 
was the real beginning of nationality under theocracy 
for the chosen people. A period of forty years, des- 
tined to be passed in the wilderness, as means to ends 
in the rehgious and moral development of the social 
whole, punctuated by numerous moral crises of sin 
and grace, was ushered in by the institution of a priest- 
hood in the person of Aaron, the brother of Moses, 
and by the Mosaic giving of the "Law." A new and 
hardier race emerged from the hardships and the les- 
sons of the wilderness. Finally, after many tests of 
faith this unique people, led by Joshua, was permitted 
to reoccupy the "promised land," about thirteen or 
fourteen hundred years before Christ. 

In the Promised Land. — This "promised land" was 
partitioned into twelve tribal provinces, to correspond 
with the number of the patriarch Jacob's sons. The 
threatening attitude of the Philistines, only partially 
conquered, taken in connection with their common re- 
lation to the true God, should have suggested the 
closest possible federation, but frequent dissensions 
defeated this end, and exposed the tribes separately 
to their powerful enemies. Under these circumstances 
local chiefs, or judges, raised up by God himself, 
sometimes attained to considerable intertribal recog- 
nition, but the conviction that only monarchy could 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS 37 

save them from conquest by the Philistines grew and 
grew until at last, about 1095 B. C, the chosen people 
begged God through Judge Samuel to grant them a 
king, and God gave them Saul. 

Kings. — King Saul, a Benjamite, was of giant 
stature and a born warrior, who soon reduced chaos to 
order. A strong feeling of nationality now began to 
take possession of the tribes. Through the "prophets," 
organized by Samuel into "schools," theocracy main- 
tained the ascendancy over nationality for more than 
a century. When death deprived the king of Samuel's 
guidance, Saul gradually degenerated, and was suc- 
ceeded, after a reign of forty years, by David, a Judah- 
ite. This warrior and poet did much during his 
reign of forty years that made for permanency of re- 
ligious and political conditions. His brilliant son 
Solomon, also reigning forty years, produced a "golden 
age," but succumbed to the fatal seduction of com- 
mercial and political foreign relations. The accession 
of his weak and insolent son Rehoboam in 930 B, C, 
caused the ten northern tribes to revolt. Thus arose 
the separate kingdom of "Israel," with Samaria as the 
capital. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained 
loyal to the house of David, with Jerusalem as the 
capital. 

Exile. — This defection in nationality was a blow to 
the ideal of theocracy and eventually caused the down- 
fall of both kingdoms. The "ten tribes" were carried 
away in 720 B. C, by the Assyrians, and became "the 
ten lost tribes." In 586 B. C. the Babylonians stormed 
Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried the peo- 
ple away captive into Babylon. The captivity was 
a wonderful discipline. It taught this remnant of the 



38 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

chosen people the importance of returning to God. 
Such spiritual return became possible through a code 
of traditional rulings written down in the reign of 
Josiah, and called Thorah. In 536 B. C, as a fulfil- 
ment of prophecy, it is believed, Cyrus the Great, con- 
queror of Babylon, allowed the Jews, as they began 
to be called, to return to Jerusalem. 

Restoration. — Perhaps this restoration of the chosen 
people was to be their last grand opportunity to per- 
fect an ideal theocracy. Be that as it may, Ezra and 
Nehemiah produced another golden age. It was in 
this period that the scribes (Scripture scholars) com- 
posed the voluminous commentary on ''Moses and the 
Prophets," known as the Talmud, a body of moral and 
rehgious prescription. But the sun of Jewish glory 
was soon to set again, the voice of prophecy was stilled, 
and the race settled into a moral stupor from which 
even the peril of subjugation by contending world- 
empires could not wake it. In 323 B. C, after Alex- 
ander's death, his general, Ptolemy, made the Holy 
Land a province of Macedonia. The Syrians were the 
next masters. The Maccabees (142-64 B. C.) set up 
a brief independency, but all-conquering Rome finally 
made Judea a province, and after a series of insurrec- 
tions Jerusalem was captured and the temple destroyed 
by Titus in the year 70 A. D. Since then the chosen 
people have been the "wandering Jews," a race with- 
out a home — an empire without a capital — destroyed, 
they still live ! Taken in connection with the com- 
mission which called the nation into being, the unique 
nomadism to which the preceding pages call our atten- 
tion, can mean only one thing, namely, that the Jew 
is a national envoy extraordinary of the true God. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS 39 

Religion. — "In this people we have the worship of 
the one spiritual God — Jehovah — the purely One. 
With other Eastern nations, the primary and funda- 
mental existence was nature; but that, with the He- 
brews, becomes a mere creature, and spirit is foremost. 
God is the creator of nature and of all men, the only 
first cause of all things. God was honored, and could 
be honored only by righteousness, the reward of which 
was to be happiness "here and hereafter." * 

The Old Testament is the embodiment of this re- 
ligion by "Moses and the prophets," and by singers and 
historians. Taken in connection with the Talmud as 
a commentary, a commentary in which the law and 
the prophets were all too frequently brought to no 
effect by the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, 
as Jesus tells us, the Old Testament constitutes the 
Jewish literature par excellence. Out of its truth, and 
its fulfilment in Christ, grew the New Testament. 
Apart from a knowledge of these Holy Scriptures, the 
great Jewish historian Josephus would become unin- 
telligible. 

JEWISH EDUCATION 

The course of history, together with the religion to 
which attention has been called, prepares us to un- 
derstand Jewish education as a system of means to 
ends. 

Ends in View. — The primary purpose in Jewish 
education, as we are now prepared to see, was to pro- 
duce a God-serving, moral race of men. God's chosen 
people were therefore required to know the true God 
in order that they might serve him intelligently, lov- 
* Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers," p. 56. 



40 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ingly, and freely. To this triple end the means were 
selected with great fitness. 

Family. — There were no such things as formal schools 
before the restoration from Babylonian exile. Up to 
that time the home was held responsible for the pri- 
mary education of Jewish boys and girls. The father, 
as we read in Holy Writ, was required to teach read- 
ing and writing. Reading, because it was a key to the 
Holy Scriptures, was the subject which above all others 
served the purposes of Jewish education. Singing was 
a favorite subject. The boys had to learn arithmetic 
and a trade, and the girls were trained in domestic 
service. 

Festivals. — Three great yearly festivals of the Jews 
were an integral part of their educational system. 
These were held at Jerusalem, and every male Jew 
was required to attend. The feast of Passover re- 
hearsed the thrilling story of the deliverance from 
Egyptian bondage; the feast of Pentecost, the majestic 
giving of the *'Law" in the wilderness; and the feast 
of Tabernacles rehearsed the gracious favors of God 
providing food and protection for his children on the 
way to the promised land. These dramatic recitals 
kept alive the memory of God's dealing with the fathers 
and thus inflamed the hearts of the children with the 
same abiding love that prompted them to serve God 
willingly. 

Schools of the Prophets. — King Saul's great adviser, 
Samuel, organized what are known as "the schools of 
the prophets." These schools were something like the 
modern institutes and religious summer schools. The 
sessions were movable, convenience and other matters 
dictating the selection of localities. Here inspired men 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS 41 

of God convened for a season to improve themselves 
by mutual instruction in religion, lyrics, etc., in order 
that they in turn might carry God's messages down to 
the people. This higher educational movement con- 
tinued for five centuries, bringing inestimable good to 
religion and the nation. Even kings, like David, as 
we see by effects on his psalms, were patrons of these 
schools. Academies of high rank sprang up after- 
ward, as in GamaHel's time. 

Post-Exile Schools. — Provisions for higher education 
were made shortly after the return from Babylon, and 
in connection with the synagogues which Ezra founded. 
Henceforth the scribes, rather than the prophets, be- 
came the educational leaders, and the curriculum was 
very much enlarged, including philosophy, literature, 
science, and presently Greek. 

It was not until several centuries before Christ that 
primary schools in the common meaning of that term 
became the custom. Their function was to supple- 
ment, not to displace, home training, and to prepare 
for higher education. The subjects already included 
in the family schooling were very much enriched, the 
poor and the rich alike were admitted, and the scribes 
as teachers employed methods that command modern 
respect. These instructors recognized and respected 
the individuality of the pupil, and applied with con- 
siderable skill what to-day we call the doctrine of cor- 
relation of sense-impressions. Strange to say, corporal 
punishment was not administered to pupils over eleven 
years of age. 

Estimate. — The Jewish system of education, as was 
to be expected, was a most admirable selection of means 
to ends. It is true that the introduction of monarchy 



42 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was somewhat inconsistent with theocracy as an edu- 
cational ideal, but, in effect, the kings were God's 
representatives, and whenever the interests of the 
nation as a social whole or the moral freedom of the 
individual were seriously threatened by these represen- 
tatives, they were openly denounced by the prophets 
of God, or repudiated and rejected, as in Saul's case. 

The Jewish system of theocratic morality was im- 
measurably superior to pagan morality, where super- 
stition too commonly stifled conscience, the voice of 
God within, and where fear of external force too com- 
monly destroyed freedom. As a social whole the 
''chosen people" probably never attained to this high 
ideal, but that was due to the taint of long contact 
with the magism of Egypt and frequent contact with 
the same corrupting thing even in the promised land. 
To make matters worse, the well-meaning but mis- 
taken zeal of the scribes and Pharisees, the accredited 
and responsible teachers of morals, too often had the 
same vitiating results. 

It is also true that science as such was not an in- 
tegral part of the theocratic curriculum, that with 
the exception of music, art as such and physical cul- 
ture had no place at all in the system, and that litera- 
ture was almost exclusively religious; but there were 
high and holy reasons for these apparent defects in 
curriculum. The chief reason, and the one implied in 
all others, was the necessity of institutional defense 
against the idolatry latent in the Semitic stock, and 
constantly pressed upon the chosen people from 
without. 

The developed pedagogy of the Jews, as already in- 
dicated, is surprising, and must be regarded as a dis- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS 43 

tinct contribution, pointing, as it does, to serious pur- 
suit along the same lines. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers." 

3. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

4. Monroe's " Cyclopedia of Education." 

5. Graves' "History of Education Before the Middle Ages." 

6. Davidson's "History of Education." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Who were the Phoenicians? Describe their educational 
ideal and the specific contributions of these ancients. 

2. Who are the Hebrews, or Jews? Describe the unique course 
of their national development in Egypt, in the Wilderness, in 
the promised land, under kings, in exile, in their restoration to 
the Holy Land, and in their world-dispersion. 

3. Compare the religion of the Jews with that of other Oriental 
nations. What was its effect on literature? 

4. What, in accord with their religion, and as manifest in 
their unique national development, was the primary purpose 
of education among the ancient Jews? 

5. Explain the educational function of the ancient Jewish 
family, going into the details of curriculum and methods. 

6. Describe the great Jewish festivals and explain their edu- 
cational function. 

7. Describe the origin, curriculum, and pedagogy of the schools 
of the prophets. 

8. What provisions for higher education were made after the 
return from Babylonian captivity? Go into the details of cur- 
riculum and pedagogy. 

9. Describe the post-exile primary schools of the Jews, going 
into the details of curriculum and pedagogy. 

10. Discuss the effect of monarchy on the theocratic ideal of 
education. 

11. Compare the Jewish theocratic ideal of morality with that 
of pagan systems, and account for the historical miscarriage. 



44 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

12. Account for the apparently defective curriculum of Jewish 
education. 

13. What was the character of the later pedagogy of the Jews? 
Was it a distinct contribution to modern education? 



CHAPTER VII 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 

THE GREEKS 

In very ancient times a Turanian people, later called 
Pelasgians, who had not wholly lost the original 
religious ideas of their earliest forebears, occupied 
the country afterward known as Greece.* At a 
time near the dawn of history they were conquered 
in part and driven into mountain regions or desert 
places by a number of tribes of Semites, who brought 
with them the supernaturalism of their race in re- 
ligion, and became a sort of tribal empire under the 
Pelopids. This brings us down to about iioo B, C, 
the reputed time of the Trojan war. By that time 
Aryans from the steppes of eastern Russia and Thes- 
saly, kin to the Hindus and Persians in Asia, had be- 
come somewhat allied with the admixture of Turanian 
Semites. The Trojan war, in which it appears they 
sided with their Asiatic kin, weakened them, and the 
Aryans, later known as Hellenes, taking advantage of 
this weakness, and reinforced by their kinsmen from 
the north, conquered them. In time, the Hellenes, 
coming into close association with the conquered 
Turano-Semitic people, adopted much of their higher 
civilization, but imposed upon it their own Aryan in- 
dividualism, into which they gradually merged com- 
pletely. Centuries were passing, and the Hellenes, 

* Davidson's, "History of Education," p. 88. 
45 



46 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

now (800-700 B. C.) settled more and more firmly in 
valleys separated by mountains, became separated 
into many tribes— the city-states of history — chief 
among them the war-loving Dorians and the beauty- 
loving lonians. This tribal separateness produced 
tribal wars and tribal competitions in the Aryan indi- 
vidualisms of the race that have never ceased to as- 
tonish and command the thinking world. 

The Dorians, making Sparta the centre of a social 
whole, including many allied tribes, and the lonians, 
making Athens the centre of another social whole 
which included many allied tribes, became bitter rivals 
for supremacy. 

Then (492-479 B. C.) came the Persian wars, which 
threatened to engulf Greek individualism in Oriental 
despotism. Athens and Sparta, recognizing the com- 
mon peril, forgot their rivalry and, fighting side by 
side at Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis, bravely 
saved freedom. 

In order to liberate the Greeks of Asia Minor and 
adjoining islands, the far-seeing Themistocles organ- 
ized an Ionian league, the famous confederacy of Delos, 
with Athens at the head. Sparta was excluded from 
this confederacy, and Athens became immensely rich 
through the assessments apportioned among the mem- 
bers of the league. The great Athenian statesman, 
Pericles, in spite of protests, used the wealth of Athens 
to increase her strength and enhance her glory. Under 
his patronage Athens became the "seat of learning," 
and a ''city beautiful." Then it was that builders and 
sculptors and painters vied with each other to create 
forever inimitable specimens of art. And it was them 
that letters and science and philosophy attained to a 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 47 

richness of production never surpassed by any people. 
It was the golden age of Athens (445-431 B. C.).* 

But the glory of Athens came to a premature end. 
Her ambition had overreached itself. Sparta, resent- 
ing the course which events had taken, and moved by 
race bias, determined to crush her proud rival. And 
thus came the fratricidal Peloponnesian War (431-404 
B. C). The great Pericles, perishing in the siege of 
Athens, with which the war began, left no one great 
enough to save Athens. Her fall in 404 B. C. was a 
blow from which she never fully recovered. Sparta 
had become supreme. 

It is true enough that Thebes, under the inspiration 
of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, destroyed this suprem- 
acy in 371 B. C, but Thebes and Athens combined 
could not save Greek freedom. Philip of Macedon 
destroyed it at Chaeronea, 338 B. C. Under Roman 
patronage Athens regained her intellectual supremacy, 
but lost it through the Ptolemies at Alexandria. 

Religion.— The individualism of the Greeks, to which 
special attention has been called, accounts for the in- 
tellectual, emotional, and moral character of Greek 
religion. The freedom-loving Greek with whom we 
have to do in his wars and supremacies becomes the 
beauty-loving and self-expressive Greek in religion. 
With this conception mastered, we shall be ready to 
understand and appreciate Greek life and Greek educa- 
tion as a system of means and ends. 

Gods. — The beauty of nature that "wrapped him 

round about" intoxicated his senses and entranced his 

mind. His lively imagination came to the rescue of 

reason and created lovely gods in human shape. This 

* See Myers' "General History" for details. 



48 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

attempt to express religious conceptions and emo- 
tions in human forms really amounts to self-worship, 
with nothing beyond it except the greater than human 
perfection which the Greek, though not always, at- 
tributed to his gods.* Among the great gods were 
Zeus (the Roman Jupiter), god of the air; Hera (the 
Roman Juno), the queen of Zeus; Apollo, the sun- 
god; Poseidon (the Roman Neptune), the sea-god; 
Ares (the Roman Mars), god of war — and so on, almost 
without end. Athena (the Roman Minerva), goddess 
of wisdom; Aphrodite (the Roman Venus), goddess of 
love, and others show how the Greek mind deified in 
a poetic, artistic way all human perfections. The 
nine muses (Euterpe, CalHope, Terpsichore, etc.) 
deify human talents. The Greek world was literally 
crowded with minor deities. The lively Greek imagi- 
nation deified almost every manifestation of beauty in 
nature. The flying clouds became Centaurs, human- 
headed horses; the earthquakes were the work of 
Cyclops, Vulcan's blacksmiths; Conscience became the 
Furies; the beautiful seasons became three Graces 
(beautiful maidens) ; life and death were controlled by 
Fates, etc. The nature materials of this elaborate 
polytheism are intimately dependent on early Semitic 
influence, as the Semitic names employed and a care- 
ful study of Homer's characters clearly show. The 
distinctively Aryan thing in this nature-worship is the 
beauty-loving, self-expression.f 

No Future State. — Early contact with European 
Turanians left in the Aryan Greek some vague belief 
in a future state of rewards and punishments, as we see 

* Lord's "Ancient Religions." 

t Davidson's "History of Education," p. 87. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 49 

in such gods as Hades, Proserpina, Castor, etc. A 
careful study of Greek poetry and art reveals no seri- 
ous recognition of immortality. It is only when we 
come to the later speculations of the philosophers, as 
in Socrates, that we find this idea. 

Morality. — The absence of the idea of immortality 
— no heaven, no hell, no god that cares much — robs 
Greek religion of all its value as a moral motive, and 
accounts for the moral superficiality of Greek civiliza- 
tion. The Greek prayed to his gods as we do to the 
true God, but he prayed for favors wanted now — not 
hereafter. When his self-made gods became quite 
real to the Greek imagination he would even pray for 
help in trouble. 

Oracles. — This was the origin of the Greek oracles, 
as at Delphi and Dodona, where temples were erected 
to Apollo and Zeus respectively, and where priests 
were stationed, who should interpret and declare the 
will of the gods. 

The Greek temples, like the statues of the gods 
within, were ''dreams" of beauty, and as such they 
were veritable acts of worship. Everything that art 
could accomplish by architecture, sculpture, and paint- 
ing, was done to perfect these temples. 

The Greek priests were not a hereditary caste, as 
among the Hindus or in Egypt. They were appointed 
officials. This was probably due to the fact that the 
Asiatic forebears of these Aryan Greeks had never 
become subject to Semitic domination. And yet the 
influence of these priests, politically and otherwise, 
incredible as it may seem, especially in the case 
of the oracle at Delphi, was one time all but world- 
wide. 



50 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Sacred Games. — The lively Greek imagination which 
created the gods endowed them with so much reality 
that worship in the form of beautiful temples was not 
enough. Sacred games — religious festivals, were there- 
fore instituted as another mode of worship. In their 
final form these games consisted of contests, physical 
and mental, for which prizes were offered, thus to stim- 
ulate perfections which would please the gods. 

The Olympian festival, held on the plain of Olym- 
pia, not far from Sparta, was instituted 776 B. C, and 
occurred every four years. The prizes offered pro- 
moted physical culture throughout Greece so much 
that the Greek body became the ideal of the sculptors. 
The other festivals — the Pythian to Apollo, the Isth- 
mian to Poseidon, and the Nemean to Zeus, offered 
prizes to poets, orators, historians, etc., thus promot- 
ing every variety of beautiful self-expression, which, 
we repeat, was the highest Greek ideal. 

OLD GREEK EDUCATION 

Justice to special features of Greek education be- 
fore the age of Pericles calls for treatment under three 
heads, namely, the age of Homer, Sparta, and Athens. 

Age of Homer. — The Hellenic tribes who had over- 
come the Turano-Semitic population of Homeric 
Greece, adopted the civilization of the conquered peo- 
ple almost bodily, as a careful study of Homer's Iliad 
and the Odyssey prove. From these sources we know 
that the Hellenic education of that period was patri- 
archal—the father taught his son to worship the gods 
and to serve the tribal state in war, while the mother 
supervised the education of her daughter, teaching her 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 51 

religion and the life of a soldier's wife. The morals of 
boys and girls were carefully guarded. Books and 
schools had not yet come to Greece — life itself was 
education both in purpose and as means. The free- 
dom-loving, beauty-worshipping, and self-expressive 
individualism of later history was present, but the hero 
and his wife were the sole object of this beauty-wor- 
ship. 

SPARTA 

Tradition would have it that the Dorians had made 
the Peloponnesus their tribal habitat long before the 
Trojan war, but that they had been exiled to the 
north. Their return, known as the Dorian Migration,* 
evidently constitutes the major part of the final tri- 
umph of Hellenism over Semitism in Greece. 

Spartan Social System. — Finding the so-called 
Achaeans — probably Pelasgians — in possession of their 
early home, the Dorians promptly ousted them. The 
new city which the Dorians now built — Sparta — be- 
came the centre of the social whole, and the Dorian 
conquerors became known as Spartans. The conquered 
Achaeans, a farm folk, were allowed to live round about 
the city, and became known as the Periceci. The 
Spartan rulers taxed them, but allowed them no voice 
in government. Some of the conquered folk were re- 
duced to slavery in the special sense of the word, and 
called Helots. 

SPARTAN EDUCATION 

There was one man among the Spartans who saw 
that the Spartan social system imperilled the per- 
* Myers' "General History." 



52 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

petuity of Dorian supremacy. This man was the 
celebrated Lycurgus, about 800 B, C. In the consti- 
tution which he now drew up for the Spartans he ac- 
cordingly embodied provisions for an educational 
system that should cover the situation. All these pro- 
visions had one special end in view. 

Final Purpose. — In his provisions for Spartan edu- 
cation, Lycurgus, adopting almost bodily the Pelas- 
gian culture to which the Greeks had fallen heir, but 
utterly at variance with the higher claims of Greek in- 
dividualism, became an exponent of Oriental mili- 
tarism. In other words, he would dedicate the in- 
dividual — soul and body — to the good of the social 
whole. Every boy must accordingly be trained for 
war, and every girl must be trained almost Uke a boy. 

Infancy. — The state took charge of the Spartan boy 
from birth. A council of elders inspected the child. 
If he was defective in any way he was exposed to die 
in some mountain glen, unless adopted by the Perioeci 
or the Helots. If he was allowed to live he was com- 
mitted to the charge of his mother up to the age of 
seven, when the state took formal charge of his educa- 
tion. 

Physical Culture. — The Spartan boy was now housed 
with others in public quarters serving the same pur- 
pose as our modern barracks, and his boy-life super- 
vised by state officials known as *' boy-trainers." All 
the details of his body life were ordered according to 
the one end in view, namely, physical fitness for war. 
With this end in view, he was required to sleep on pal- 
lets of straw, or rushes plucked by the boy himself 
from the banks of the Eurotas. He was a "barefoot 
boy" all the year round, and after the age of twelve 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 53 

his simple dress consisted of a single garment. He 
was often required to go hungry, but encouraged at 
the same time to forage for food. If, however, he was 
caught in the process, he was beaten to encourage 
craftiness. 

Spartan physical culture included a graded system 
of gymnastics, beginning with running, jumping, and 
playing ball, to which throwing the discus, hurling the 
javelin, and wrestling were added as the boy grew 
older. Occasionally the wrestHng matches became 
combats, and the boys were actually encouraged to 
resort to biting, kicking, gouging, etc. The boys were 
also trained in "squad" work under boy-captains, to 
whom absolute obedience must be rendered. Inas- 
much as the course in gymnastics was an open-air 
affair crowds of spectators were not uncommon, and 
this served as a powerful stimulus. 

Morals. — The Spartan boy was required to obey 
orders under all sorts of difficult situations. As he 
grew older he had to learn the laws of Lycurgus, to- 
gether with the religious and moral prescriptions of 
Homer. This tended to produce respect for the ex- 
isting order of things. The Spartan cultivated a 
beautiful reverence for old age, so much so that it 
was "a pleasure to grow old in Sparta." Modera- 
tion, temperance, self-control in any shape was con- 
sidered a cardinal virtue. Courage in danger, even 
to death, as in the case of Leonidas at Thermopylae, 
was held up as the great ideal. 

Lycurgus, beHeving that foreign commerce would 
destroy the morals of Sparta, reduced it to the mini- 
mum by requiring the Spartans to use "iron money," 
which foreigners were loath to accept. 



54 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Intellect. — Reading and writing hardly constituted 
a part of the Spartan curriculum, but that did not save 
the boy from thinking. According to the laws of 
Lycurgus, the Spartan boys were obliged to take their 
meals — if such they may be called — with the grown-up 
men, at public tables. Here the affairs of the state, 
together with religion and morals, were freely discussed 
by the men. The strictest attention was required on 
the part of the boys. Questions followed, and if any 
boy could not answer them correctly he was punished. 
It was expected, moreover, that the answers, like the 
questions, should be right to the point. All the rules 
of the public tables tended to produce mental alert- 
ness, nicety of judgment, quick perception of means 
to ends, etc., in short, a very practical sort of intel- 
lectual culture. 

Music. — This term, as used among the Greeks, 
covers anything over which a "muse" presides, that 
is, letters, or literature in the widest sense, together 
with music in the special sense. The Spartans, how- 
ever, looked with favor only on religious and war music. 
The former was often learned in connection with choral 
dances; the latter with war-dances and epic poetry. 
In these exercises the girls were sometimes allowed 
to join with the boys. 

Spartan Women. — Although the Spartan girls were 
allowed to live at home, their education was, in most 
respects, like that of the boys. The curriculum in- 
cluded rehgion, morals, and home virtues, together 
with music and dancing, and a course in physical cul- 
ture that ran into some coarseness but certain^'' served 
its purpose. 

Estimate. — Spartan education tended to produce a 
powerful social whole, but it sacrificed the individual 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 55 

to the state, and the mind to the body, and thus failed 
to contribute anything in science, art, or philosophy, 
to future ages. Through this arrest of development 
Greece would have reverted to barbarism, had Athens 
not saved her from this fate. 



ATHENS 

The Greek race — perhaps it would be better to say 
Greek individualism — is seen to the best advantage 
among the lonians. With them — especially in Ionian 
Athens — beauty became deified, and the worship of 
beauty a religion. The beauty of nature furnished the 
lively imagination of the Greek with many gods, but 
the forms in which he created them were really daring 
attempts at self-expression. All his arts, including 
architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, oratory, to- 
gether with his sciences and philosophy, were simply 
additional forms of self-worship and self-expression. 

Democracy. — The Ionian Greeks — and this is only 
another case of Greek individualism — were the first 
race to attempt democracy. 

Their political history began, as among the Dorians, 
with tribal monarchy, a common Pelasgian heritage. 
The untainted Aryanism of the lonians had, however, 
stood in the way of complete assimilation. The transi- 
tion from monarchy to democracy is one of the most 
fascinating chapters in psychology. The archons who 
succeeded the mythical king Codrus represented an 
elective compromise with hereditary monarchy (1050 
B. C). The laws of Draco and Solon were successive 
stages in the delivery of the social whole from the 
elective archons, for these archons were really an 
aristocratic remnant of monarchy, and, recognized 



56 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

as such, they could not satisfy the longing of the 
social whole for complete democracy. The so-called 
"tyrants" of Athens were rather popular usurpers 
than real reversions to monarchy. They failed ut- 
terly when Hippias, son of Pisistratus, became a 
despot. In Cleisthenes' restoration of Solon's laws 
(507 B. C.) Ionian monarchy succumbed permanently 
to democracy. 

This strong Ionian leaning toward democracy, allied 
with that other love, the love of beauty, constitutes the 
explanation of Athenian education as a system of means 
to end. The system dates back almost to the age of 
the mythical Cadmus and his Phoenician alphabet, 
and it reaches its climax in the golden age of Pericles. 

ATHENIAN EDUCATION 

Ionian education and Dorian education, as their 
common origin would lead us to think, were almost 
identical in outline, or curriculum, but the special ends 
in view enriched the common means and perfected 
them as special means. 

Ideals. — The special end in view in Ionian, or Athe- 
nian education was, as we are now prepared to see, 
the perfect individual. This individual perfection 
included soul and body — the two perfectly related in 
strength and beauty. The physical perfection at 
which the true Athenian aimed would, of course, serve 
the purposes of war and thus the interests of the state, 
but the underlying concept was that perfection of the 
body had most intimate connection with perfection 
of the mind. And, with true Athenians, as already 
intimated, the perfect mind was a freedom-loving, 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 57 

beauty-worshipping, and self-expressive mind. It was 
this well-proportioned and sjmimetrical perfection, 
with all its implications, that was ever present and at 
work in curriculum and methods. 

Home. — We feel the presence of this aim from the 
very beginning of an Athenian child's education — it 
began in play, i. e., effort for the sake of pleasure — 
free self-expression. Among his plays as among ours 
were leap-frog, rolling hoops, riding on a hobby-horse, 
etc., while the girls played with jacks, dolls, etc. 

Childhood. — At the age of six the Athenian boy — 
not the girl — began to go to school. And the whole 
boy — body and soul — were put to work. A trusted 
slave, called pedagogue, or boy-leader — a sort of physi- 
cal and moral chaperon — accompanied the boy, watched 
over him, carried his writing materials and his lyre, 
and saved him from truancy. 

Up to the age of fifteen the Athenian boy's school 
consisted of a teaching-place called didascaleum, and 
a place probably close by called the palcestra. Re- 
quired by the state, primary education was neverthe- 
less not supervised by the state. The teacher was, 
therefore, a private individual, who used his own 
house, or some rented room, for the school, and received 
his pay from the father of the boy. 

Intellect. — Reading, writing, and counting, together 
with music, religion, and morals, constituted the cur- 
riculum for mental culture. By the addition of vowel 
letters the Greeks completed the Phoenician alphabet, 
to which they had fallen heir, into a much better edu- 
cational means than the ideographs of Oriental sys- 
tems. And yet reading was harder to learn than now 
because accents, punctuation, and word-separation 



58 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

had not been invented. "When the boy had learned 
his letters by tracing them in sand he was taught to 
copy verses and selections from well-known authors, 
at first upon wax-tablets with a stylus, and later on 
parchments with pen and ink," It was only in the 
later centuries that Athenian arithmetic amounted to 
more than counting. This was probably due to the 
fact that the Greek alphabet, with diacritical marks 
as a supplement, constituted the clumsy system of 
notation. 

Morals. — It is a striking fact in Greece that the 
priest was not also the teacher as in Oriental nations. 
In spite of this fact the Greek mind included religion 
and morals in their perfection-producing curriculum. 
The Homeric poems became the Greek bible, and were 
used as means in religious and moral instruction. 
Suitable portions had to be recited and committed. 
In order to heighten the emotional effect, these selec- 
tions were sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. 

Music. — In the Athenian curriculum music served 
the ideal of human perfection in at least three ways — 
by heightening the emotional effect, it reinforced re- 
ligious and moral instruction, as just explained. 
Through the proper selection of epics and lyrics in the 
religious and moral instruction substitution of good 
for evil emotions, and therefore emotional purity was 
possible. The Greeks believed, as we believe, that 
because music urges soul and body into intimate re- 
lations it is the highest form of beautiful self-expression. 

Physical Culture. — The fact that the school curric- 
ulum of Athens included a good deal of physical cul- 
ture explains why the school-day was an all-day pro- 
gramme without injury to the boy's health. The 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 59 

exercises were selected as means to ends in physical 
beauty — running and jumping, for example, were se- 
lected for symmetry, throwing the discus for general 
adjustment, hurling the javelin for poise, and dancing 
coupled with music for grace. The palaestra was care- 
fully supervised as a preparation for higher courses. 

Youth. — The education of an Athenian boy usually 
ended at the age of fifteen, except in the case of wealthy 
boys, or for leadership. This higher course in physi- 
cal culture was prescribed by the state, and offered in 
state gymnasia located just outside the city. The 
course was called the pentathlon, meaning five exercises 
in physical strength. It consisted of a complex plan 
in running, jumping, throwing the discus, hurling the 
javelin, and wrestling. The last of them, as in Sparta, 
sometimes developed into real fights. 

We look in vain for a corresponding higher course 
in mental culture. It was not until the golden age of 
Pericles had come that we hear of grammar, mathe- 
matics, and philosophy. Nevertheless, the Athenians 
correlated with this gymnasium course a course in 
mental culture that commands the attention of the 
twentieth century. The gymnasium did not demand 
all of the young man's time. He was then free to go 
where he pleased. This brought him much in contact 
with public men, moralists, etc. The golden age of 
Pericles added courts and theatres and orators and 
artists and writers and philosophers to the young 
man's educational opportunities. 

Manhood. — At the age of eighteen the Athenian boy 
was admitted into probationary citizenship. This was 
the beginning of a two years' course in military train- 
ing. Apprenticeship in arms for a year in the city 



60 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

garrison was followed after examination by a year of 
frontier service. At the age of twenty he took the 
Solonian oath of citizenship, and was merged into the 
common hfe of Athens, a democracy of freemen from 
the highest rights of which, alas, four times as many 
boys were excluded by the tragedy of slavery. 

Athenian Women. — The Athenian system of educa- 
tion made almost no provisions for women. The home 
and life as she found them in Athens — with almost as 
little personal freedom as the slave — were the Athenian 
woman's only educational opportunities. And when, 
in the golden age, Athenian women tried to steal an 
education, they were looked upon with suspicion. 

Estimate. — Individual perfection, with due respect 
for the social whole, is probably the highest end in 
view in education, but the Athenian failed to perfect 
such an individuality because his religion could not 
supply the final moral guarantees. 

It was partly due to this religious and moral failure 
that Athens debased her educational ideal by the in- 
ferior place allotted to woman, and by her system of 
slavery, for through both of these failures Athenian 
individualism denied the rights of the social whole. 

The unerring selection of fundamentals in curriculum 
and methods as means to ends has scarcely been sur- 
passed by the educational experts of the twentieth 
century, 

Christianity, offering the largest possible freedom to 
individuality, with an equal promise of democracy to 
nations small and great, this correlate freedom lead- 
ing to the highest possible progress in true science, 
was "the one thing needful" on the way to **the one 
far-off divine event" for which the world was waiting. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 61 

The Jewish system was the bridge which Providence 
and psychology, if we mistake not, built across the 
great chasm. 

THE NEW EDUCATION 

The Grasco-Persian War brought Greece — especially 
Athens — into the world-stream. The new ideas which 
came to the city through foreign commerce and foreign 
connections of every sort, together with the great fact 
that Pericles made Athens a seat of learning, induced 
Greek individualism to run wild. Faith in gods 
created by imagination gave way to doubt and then 
to despair. Rebellious individuality no longer recog- 
nized its obligations to the social whole, and Athens 
as a city-state was losing all coherence. This condition 
of things produced new teachers known as Sophists. 
It was their hope to adjust education to the new 
conditions. 

SOPHISTS 

The word sophist means wise teacher, or specialist 
in teaching. The Greek Sophists were usually learned, 
well-travelled non-Athenians who were attracted to 
the metropolis by the opportunities to teach. The 
"new age" was a great opportunity for young men 
who had talent for oratory and politics. The Soph- 
ists, professing great proficiency in matters of this 
sort, were therefore in much demand at Athens — 
especially among young men of gymnasium age. 
These young men attached themselves to the new 
teachers and their new ideas with adolescent hero- 
worship. Special stress was laid on argument. De- 



62 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

batable subjects in politics, ethics, etc., were used 
as means to ends. In the debating process truth was 
often sacrificed to words, for the laws of thought had 
not yet been formulated, and specious rhetoric — flights 
of oratory — could seduce the heart and cheat the head. 
There were able and noble Sophists, such as Pro- 
tagoras, a favorite of Socrates, and when they, with 
''new Athens," which indeed they helped to create, 
had tasted the vanity of outward beauty and propriety, 
they turned to inward beauty, or truth, and thus 
paved the way for philosophy. 

The conservatives were bitterly and justly offended. 
They saw the need of new and better moral guarantees, 
and therefore the need of a new and better curriculum, 
and would no doubt have welcomed an effective recon- 
ciliation between the failing claims of the Athenian 
social whole, or state, and the riotous claims of the new 
Athenian individuality. But, to begin with, the Soph- 
ists, defying all tradition, accepted pay for teaching! 
And then, if we may touch the climax of things at 
once, they repudiated the study of theology and sci- 
ence. Protagoras, their best representative, expressed 
this repudiation as follows: "As to the gods, we know 
not," and ''Man (individual man) is the measure of 
things." It is no wonder therefore that thoughtful 
men were shocked and offended. It is true that the 
Greek mind had tried to find "the solution of things" 
as early as the stimulating century of Cleisthenes, 
just before the Persian War. This, for example, was 
the case with Pythagoras, but an explanation of the 
world to the correction of which the Sophists addressed 
themselves was far more difficult, and therefore prob- 
ably far more attractive. The attempt produced such 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 63 

truth-seekers, or Philosophers, as Socrates, Plato, 
Aristotle, and others. 

PYTHAGORAS 

Pythagoras, the great forerunner of Greek philos- 
ophers, was born on the island of Samos, 580 B. C, 
and died about 500 B. C. He was fortunate in his 
teachers. Among them were the honored sages Thales 
and Anaximander. Then, too, it was possible for him 
to travel extensively. It is said that he went as far 
east as India. In Egypt, as the historian Grote tells 
us, he became profoundly impressed with the secret 
doctrines of God and immortality, to which as an 
inner circle some of the priests adhered. In view of 
the fine training and his exceptional association with 
the profoundest thinkers of other lands, it is not sur- 
prising that Pythagoras believed he had found the 
solution of the world's woes in holy harmony. 

At Crotona. — In order to embody his ideal in a 
select social whole and thus to demonstrate its efficiency 
as a world-remedy, he established a school at Crotona, 
a Greek city in southern Italy. It is not known just 
why he preferred Crotona for his experiment, but 
perhaps he wanted to get away from the beaten path, 
and knew that the colonial city could furnish him with 
young men more suited to his purposes. The brother- 
hood of disciples into which Pythagoras organized his 
school was a secret society subject to strict ascetic 
rule. The "perfect life" — made so by the harmony 
which he would teach them — was the end in view. 
He was therefore careful to receive into the school 
only young men of marked ability and good morals. 
The Crotona curriculum included all studies that ex- 



64 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

plained harmony or made for harmony. Thus, mathe- 
matics was studied as an explanation of the "harmony 
of the spheres/' music was studied for soul-rhythm, 
ethics for moral harmony, philosophy for harmony 
with God, etc. The unique pedagogy of Pythagoras 
deserves attention. He graded his instructions into 
two courses, the exoteric, or preparatory course, which 
lasted three years, and the esoteric, or deeper course. 
He would not appear face to face before his students 
in the exoteric course, but addressed them from be- 
hind a curtain. This method was based on the be- 
lief that his scholarship was a sufficient appeal to 
younger men, that it was enough for them if he said it. 
Thus arose among his disciples the celebrated "ipse 
dixit" which settled any argument. He associated 
very intimately with his "initiated" disciples. To 
them he spoke face to face, relying powerfully on his 
personahty. He had found the two great qualifica- 
tions of the professional teacher, but his divorce of the 
two was a forced pedagogy, to say the very least. 

What became of his house and of Pythagoras per- 
sonally is not exactly known, but when at length this 
learned brotherhood, "masters of all the sciences 
known," and who therefore looked upon themselves 
as an intellectual and moral aristocracy, became 
tangled deeply in politics, its members were driven as 
fugitives into all parts of Italy and Greece. It con- 
tinued to exist for some three centuries a deep and 
abiding influence. 

SOCRATES 

It would be hard to find another celebrated man 
who has been as ungraciously maligned* by his critics 

* Sanderson's "World History and Its Makers." 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 65 

and as gratuitously idealized as Socrates. This, with 
motives that we cannot always appreciate, has hap- 
pened because both his critics and his worshippers 
have been able to make his contemporary biographers 
• — his own disciples — say opposite things. Unpreju- 
diced comparison of his biographers, especially Plato 
and Xenophon, probably fixes the truth just between 
the conclusions of his critics and his worshippers. 

In the Making.— Socrates was born in Athens 469 
B. C, and died there 399 B. C. His father was a 
sculptor — perhaps what we should consider a stone- 
cutter — and the boy followed his father's occupation. 
As son of an Athenian citizen, he must have received 
the usual education of the palaestra and the didis- 
caleum, and even if — as may have been the case — • 
he found himself unable to take advantage of the 
gymnasium and the higher mental opportunities to 
which youths of that period had access, he grew to 
manhood in the best period of the golden age. A boy 
of his known mental caliber would find "life itself" 
in such an age an educational opportunity of the 
highest order. The sobering effect of life as a heavy- 
armed soldier in the Peloponnesian War must have 
helped powerfully to shape his well-known moral con- 
ceptions. Some authorities believe that his concep- 
tion of God as a supreme being, almost in our sense 
of the word, and his belief in immortality, were due 
to contact with the teachings of Pythagoras. In out- 
ward appearance, as all his biographers agree, Soc- 
rates was conspicuously and notoriously ugly, as even 
Xantippe must have recognized when, unhappily for 
her and himself, she accepted him as spouse, but in 
soul he was beautiful and true and good, seeking after 
God and immortality. 



66 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Services. — The Sophists, in the language of their 
best representative, Protagoras, had assumed that 
"Man (individual man) is the measure of all things," 
thus making each man a law to himself in thinking 
and morals. There could not then — if this assumption 
proved correct — be any truths except individual con- 
clusions, and there could not then be any laws of 
character. The world was still "a world of chance." 
Socrates — and this gives us a true view of the great 
thinker himself — challenged the assumption of Pro- 
tagoras. He said ''Man (the genus man) is the meas- 
ure of things." In other words, we can "measure 
things" — understand the universe in all its manifold 
relations — by induction. Whether applied to psy- 
chology and ethics, as in the specific uses which Soc- 
rates made of the method, or to nature and mathe- 
matics, this is our modern "laboratory method." 
Socrates had thus given to true philosophy its highest 
goal and pointed out the way. In his practical ap- 
plication of the inductive method — and this is his 
special claim on us here — Socrates employed two 
modes of teaching. Accosting some man in the 
market-place or on the street, or wherever the busy 
world of Athens offered him a chance, he would sud- 
denly ask some one a question, and then another, and 
another, until the last replies flatly contradicted first 
replies. This was his favorite method with the Soph- 
ists, whose pretensions he would thus purposely 
expose to ridicule, and it is known as Socratic irony. 
It leaves a sting, and should therefore be only spar- 
ingly used to-day, if at all. With earnest inquirers he 
used a somewhat different method — the true inductive 
method of inquiry. It is known as the Maieutic, or 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 67 

developing method. In this, the "true" Socratic 
method, he would employ a series of questions that 
required the learner to think "facts" for himself, and 
then by laboratory collocation the class truths or 
"definitions" to which such facts lead up. This 
method was in startling harmony with modern "apper- 
ception," and the skill with which he used it gives Soc- 
rates a high place among the princely teachers of all 
ages. 

The method has its limitations, as in the teaching 
of facts that the learner cannot think for himself, 
and as when used to "quibble" or cover ignorance in 
the teacher, and it may lead to serious failure. The 
use which Socrates made of it too frequently himself, 
coupling it with hateful irony, in the end cost him his 
Hfe. 

PLATO 

The three best-known disciples of Socrates were 
Plato, Xenophon, and Alcibiades.* 

In the Making. — Plato's real name was Aristocles. 
The surname Plato may mean broad-browed or broad- 
shouldered. He was born at Athens 427 B. C, and 
died there 347 B. C. He could trace his descent from 
Solon and away back to Codrus. To this aristocracy 
of birth his family added that of wealth, and Plato 

* The last one, by a course of life that shamed even voluptuous 
Athens, helped to bring great discredit on the moral influence of Soc- 
rates. Xenophon, on the contrary, reflects great honor on his teacher 
through three charming books: the "Anabasis," the "Memorabilia," 
and the "Cyropedia." In the second of these books Xenophon is his 
teacher's biographer. The " Cyropedia," as we now know, was an Athe- 
nian exile's attempt to recommend the best features of the Spartan 
system to Athens under the literary pretense of recommending the best 
features of Persian education to Sparta. 



68 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

therefore had every opportunity to acquire the cul- 
ture which the golden age afforded him. Endowed 
with gifts of body and mind, he became conspicuously 
proficient in "gymnastics," literary culture including 
"music," and in "letters," including the arts and 
sciences. "The fermentation and stir of adolescence" 
tempted him to express himself in poetry. At the age 
of twenty he first came under the magic touch of Soc- 
rates. The young man, moved by the power of the 
new touch, and by a serious comparison of his works 
with Homer, destroyed most of his poems — thousands 
of them — and turned seriously to philosophy. From 
this time forward for ten years — until the teacher's 
death — Plato, greatly encouraged by Socrates, was 
his most promising pupil. His studious life in this 
period was somewhat like that of a conscientious and 
ambitious college boy of the twentieth century. After 
the death of his great teacher "he gathered up his 
effects and went on a lengthy journey from Athens." * 
His visits included Egypt, where, as in the case of 
Pythagoras, he may have drunk deeply at the fountain 
of learned priests. After his return to Athens he vis- 
ited Sicily three times, and perhaps the great Pythag- 
oras. Whatever else may have helped to make Plato, 
he was pre-eminently the disciple of Socrates, and as 
such a seeker after "the measure of things" — a phi- 
losopher — an idealist of the noblest order. 

The Academy. — At length, about forty years of age, 
he began his Hfe-work at Athens. The busy market- 
place had no charm for this cultured man. A little 
way from the city was a quiet grove, the " Akademia." 
Here it was that Plato, like Pythagoras, lectured to a 

* "World History and Its Makers." 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 69 

very select body of disciples on life, the future state 
God, immortality, and responsibility. 
•> The " Republic." — We know to-day — sucn are the 
conclusions of psychology — that the feehngs or emo- 
tions are the springs of action, and that when emo- 
tion amounts to passion, a knowledge of what is right 
or best is not always a sufficient guarantee of right 
action, or virtue. But Plato, Uke Socrates before him, 
failed to take account of these relations, and therefore 
concluded that "knowledge is virtue." In other 
words, they both held that as soon as any one really 
knows what is absolutely right and best he will do 
without fail what is right and best. 

But Plato, unlike his great master, held that only 
the few can ever hope to think the concepts, or 
"ideas," of which such knowledge must consist. There- 
fore, as a solution of the strained relations between 
Greek individuality and the state as a social whole, 
he planned a system of education for the state by the 
state — a system that should make the future state a 
perfeot state. It was to be a caste system to which 
the educational systems of Sparta and Athens should 
both contribute what was best. 

As Plato saw things, the ideal state as a social 
whole must be composed of only three classes of in- 
dividuals; namely, those who can serve her best in the 
"living" industries; those who can serve her best as 
soldiers for defense, and those who can serve her best 
as statesmen, or rulers. What each class needs is 
"education for efficiency, boys and girls alike." The 
"industrials" will have to consist of those people who 
have little capacity for higher things; the soldiers of 
those who have capacity for war and the courage it 



70 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

requires, and the rulers must consist only of those 
individuals who have special talent for philosophic 
wisdom. 

This ideal state was to decide questions of marriage 
and the right of children to live. Every healthy boy 
and girl was to have as much education as Athens 
offered in the palaestra and the didiscaleum, "with 
some slight modifications of content." At the end of 
this period the least capable were to be "sifted out," 
or eliminated, by examinations. Those who stood 
the tests well enough were to continue their education 
in physical culture and military discipHne until twenty, 
boys and girls alike. During this period the mind 
was not neglected for the body, for Plato saw, what 
we see to-day, that the courage of the best soldier is 
as much a matter of mind as of body. At twenty 
years of age a final selection determined who was to 
be the soldier and who the philosopher, or ruler. The 
education of the latter was to be continued for fifteen 
more years, special stress being laid on geometry, 
literature, or "music," and philosophy proper, y 

Estimate.— This proposed system was never ac- 
cepted by Athens, and late in Hfe Plato revised it in a 
book called "Laws." Plato beheved that his system 
of elimination would provide the state with efficient 
service, and that such efficiency, based on special 
talent, served the highest interests of individual hap- 
piness. In theory this looks plausible enough, for 
even if the diagnosis upon which the state must rest 
her placements of the individual makes mistakes, the 
"misfits" would be far less numerous than usual. 
But the classification of individuals into only three 
classes was too narrow for Athens, and would be too 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 71 

narrow for any age. To make the matter worse, 
Plato's proposed system would not educate woman 
for herself as a woman, thus striking a fatal blow at 
an individuality that is of absolute importance to 
society. 

ARISTOTLE 

The fascinating biography of Aristotle, as any one 
can find for himself,* reads more like fiction than 
fiction itself. 

In the Making. — He was born at Stagira, Macedonia, 
in 384 B. C, and died about 322 B. C. His father 
was court physician to Philip, King of Macedon, and 
put the boy into the hands of a teacher to whose 
precious memory Aristotle later erected a monument. 
The bright boy became an orphan at an early age, 
and after spending all his patrimony in a hurry, en- 
tered the army a mere boy. He soon tired of camps 
and barracks, and did not know what to make of him- 
self. In his perplexity he consulted the oracle of 
Delphi, and was promptly told to go to Athens and 
study philosophy. Here, only eighteen years of age, 
small in stature, and not physically attractive, this 
learned physician's son became the eager disciple of 
Plato. He was a born student, precocious and in- 
tensely active. Plato called him the ''intellect of his 
school." The world has long confirmed this judgment 
and honors him as "the Alexander of the intellectual 
world." He remained with Plato for twenty years, 
revering him in fife and erecting to his memory a 
monument of love. The Academy lost its charm for 
Aristotle when the master died, and he continued his 

* "World History and Its Makers," vol. IV. 



72 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

studies for three years at the court of King Hermias, 
son of his own first tutor. King Hermias was con- 
quered and killed. Aristotle now made the sister his 
wife and moved to lovely Mytelene. From here he 
was called by King Philip to be his son's tutor at the 
palace of Stagira. He was now ripe in years, learning, 
and experience, and his success as a tutor for four years 
was phenomenal. 

The " Lyceum." — Presently, when fifty years of 
age, Aristotle, perhaps with some ambition to become 
the head of the Academy, returned to Athens. In 
the meantime, Alexander on his marches had put to 
death a friend of the great philosopher, and the result- 
ing coldness of relations between the former teacher 
and his pupil probably kept Aristotle from becoming 
the head of the Academy. He therefore opened a 
school of his own in a suburban grove, called "Lyceum," 
after a fane of Apollo erected within. The subjects 
which he offered suggest and foreshadow the range of 
our universities. He specialized in physics, includ- 
ing mathematics, together with physiology, biology, 
politics, psychology, and philosophy proper, but was 
equally at home in the literature and fine arts of the 
golden age. 

Aristotle, rather than the English Bacon, was the 
real father of induction, and thus giving the sciences 
not only content but form, he may well be called their 
"father." He was "quite a character," as we should 
say. Since nature had not gifted him with fine phy- 
sique, he tried to make up for defects by strict at- 
tention to toilet and style. He lectured walking, his 
disciples walking with him in the garden. From this 
peculiarity his school and the disciples of his teaching 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 73 

have taken the name of Peripatetics. In the morning 
he lectured on subjects more or less abstruse to students 
who were ready; in the afternoon he selected subjects 
somewhat popular, and addressed himself to a larger 
circle of disciples. 

The " Politics." — Aristotle gave the Greek world 
many books, and grew rich as a result, but many of 
them have been lost to the Western world. His treatise 
on the laws of thought, i. e., logic, gave both the pagan 
and the Christian world a "deductive twist" for many 
centuries. The books that interest us more especially 
here are his "Morals" and his "Politics." 

Aristotle was definitely modern in psychology. He 
understood the function of emotions as the springs of 
action, and therefore had no patience with the Socratic 
and Platonic doctrine that "Knowledge — per se — is 
Virtue." And he was still more impatient with the 
two underlying doctrines of Plato's "Republic," 
namely, that knowledge consists of self-existent con- 
cepts — ideas — universals — and that these concepts are 
possible for just a few, who should therefore control 
the state as a social whole. He saw, as we do, that 
knowledge consists of two kinds of ideas, namely, 
percepts and concepts, and that of the two only per- 
cepts stand for "reality" — that concepts have no self- 
existence apart from the individual consciousness that 
thinks them by induction. Over against his revered 
master he was a "realist," not an "idealist." 

With these points in mind, and moved by the desire 
to contribute something to the happiness of man, 
Aristotle made the last brave effort to reconcile the 
claims of Greek individuality with the claims of the 
state as a social whole. The result of this attempt was 



74 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

his book on "Politics." He accepted Plato's Spartan 
idea that education by the state should be best for the 
state, but insisted with all the power of his matchless 
logic on democracy instead of aristocracy in the state 
control of education. Accordingly he rejected abso- 
lutely and finally all caste systems in which the few 
— on the ground that they alone could attain to wis- 
dom—should have a voice. Yielding to the limita- 
tions of his age, he also disapproved of education for 
the working classes. And realizing the difference of 
function in men and women as such, he rejected the 
kind of state education proposed by Plato, but gave 
the women nothing that really enriched their function. 
He recognized the educational function of the home, 
and paid tribute to its sacred relations. 

Aristotle's educational psychology is strikingly mod- 
ern. According to his analysis, physical culture and 
mental culture should be correlated, but the former 
should lead the latter through the early teens and the 
latter through the later teens. To the traditional 
course in reading, writing, letters, and art, Aristotle 
would add drawing. With him the beauty-worship 
of the Greek mind had rather gained than lost, nor did 
he forget the religious and moral function of literature, 
including music and the arts. He had no patience 
with physical culture that aimed at making only 
athletes and warriors, since "the former exhausts" 
and "the latter brutalizes." Not mere strength and 
beauty but self-control — self-restraint — were to be 
the aims. We cannot tell what curriculum Aristotle 
advocated for higher education, for his "Politics" — 
probably by reason of sudden death — was never fin- 
ished, but putting together "two and two" in his 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 75 

practice and philosophy, we should say that he would 
emphasize mathematics, science, logic, politics. 

Estimate. — Aristotle, like Plato, failed to impress 
himself seriously upon the age to which they give such 
splendor. The momentum which rebellious Greek in- 
dividualism had acquired made it impossible. In later 
centuries pagan and Christian Europe became their 
slaves. Through the survival of his "Organ," or 
Laws of Thought, Aristotle, the father of induction, 
long enslaved the world to barren and deceptive syl- 
logisms in religion and philosophy. The great things 
for which both Plato and Aristotle stand — their recog- 
nition that both society and the individual have Just 
claims on each other, and that neither should jeopard- 
ize the claims of the other — their sincere search after 
truth in heaven and earth, for time and eternity— 
these things took fast hold of the world only by and 
by, but the hold is likely to be permanent, and only 
Christ has surpassed them in the great solutions. 

GREEK AFTER-INSTITUTIONS 

The educational movement inaugurated by the 
Greek Sophists culminated in Aristotle. "The voice 
of the prophets had ceased." There were, indeed, some 
after-movements, but the movers were rather inter- 
preters and critics than contributors. For our pur- 
poses, all these after-movements can be briefly and 
conveniently summed up as schools of philosophy, 
schools of rhetoric, and universities. 

Schools of Philosophy. — The urgent encouragement 
which Socrates gave his followers to think for them- 
selves produced almost as many sects as there were 



76 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

individuals, (i) His disciple Antisthenes imposed 
upon himself the task of denouncing the alarming 
moral decay of the age. The fanatic fury into which 
this task urged him and his followers, so that for very 
blindness they could see no good in any one, made 
them snap and snarl at every one. It was this extreme 
pessimism that led the Greek world to call these moral- 
ists the "Cynics," or *'Dog'* philosophers. The most 
conspicuous of all the Cynics was Diogenes, who lived 
in a tub and went about with a lantern in broad day 
just to find "a man." (2) The "Stoics" were Cynics 
with the rough edges toned down. Zeno, their tall 
founder, had listened to the savage invectives of 
Cynic teachers for more than ten years — until his soul 
actually revolted — and then he founded a school of 
his own in Athens. His followers are called "Stoics" 
because he used a porch or colonnade (stoa) as a meet- 
ing-place. The Stoics were not moral pessimists. 
They held that virtue, or right moral action, was so 
important that even pain should be defied in doing 
right. The Roman Stoics went further — they gloried 
in pain themselves and inflicted it with fiendish glee 
on others. (3) Epicurus, searching after happiness, 
found it, like Zeno, in virtue, but did not put himself 
purposely in the way of pain. A man of means, he 
yet lived a life of simple goodness and piety. He 
taught in his own house, and had an immense follow- 
ing in spite of scandals falsely circulated by his enemies. 
The followers of Epicurus are often confused with the 
followers of the wicked pleasure-seeker Aristippus, a 
disciple of Socrates, but of whom he never once ap- 
proved. (4) The "Sceptics" or Inquirers, arose from 
the encouragement which philosophy gave to far- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 77 

reaching research. Finding themselves unable to ex- 
plain everything, they rushed to the other foolish ex- 
treme of denying everything. Pyrrho himself, their 
founder, was merely a humble inquirer; his disciples 
of a later date were quite unworthy of the master. 

Schools of Rhetoric. — Just as the speculative im- 
pulse given to Greek education by Socrates produced 
the philosophic schools, so the emphasis placed on 
pubKc Hfe by the Sophists produced a multitude of 
schools of rhetoric. Isocrates, a man of great conse- 
quence in the generation after Socrates, organized the 
work of the Sophists, and made his school a model for 
others. The success with which he prepared young 
men for the vigorous pubHc life of the fourth century 
B. C. helped to make Athens the centre of the intel- 
lectual world for several more centuries. 

The Universities. — The emphasis which the Sophists 
placed upon intellectual education to prepare for pub- 
lic Hfe relegated the classical course of the older Athens 
more and more to the rear. After the loss of national 
independence at the hands of Philip of Macedon at- 
tendance upon the gymnasium became wholly volun- 
tary. In time compulsory attendance at the lectures 
of the schools of philosophy was combined with vol- 
untary attendance at the schools of rhetoric. When at 
length the wars between Rome and Macedon came, 
" the Academy, the Lyceum, and the school of Epicurus, 
which had been without the walls, followed the Stoics 
into the city." State support and state control, includ- 
ing the selection of Sophists, or professors, became the 
custom. The University of Athens, thus fully organ- 
ized, henceforth offered long courses of study, and the 
student life began to resemble the college life of modern 



78 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

times. The University of Athens remained the strong- 
hold of paganism after the advent of Christianity, but 
it declined rapidly when Constantine made Christianity 
the state religion, and Justinian suppressed it com- 
pletely in 529 A. D. 

In the meantime, as the result of Alexander's con- 
quest, higher education began to spread all over the 
East. Greek universities arose at Rhodes, Tarsus, 
Alexandria, and elsewhere, but the impulse which the 
Ptolemies gave to education by founding the famous 
Alexandrian library, 280 B. C, for the collection of 
manuscripts, and the equally famous museum, for 
science research, made Alexandria the rival and 
finally the superior of Athens as a university centre. 
Here Hellenic culture and the Orient merged into 
speculative "isms" that have never ceased to attract 
the learned world. ''Here the Hebrew Scriptures 
were translated into Greek (the Septuagint), 250 B. C; 
here Philo the Jew attempted to harmonize the He- 
brew Scriptures with Greek philosophy." Here Euclid 
worked at geometry, Archimedes in physics, and 
Eratosthenes in geography and astronomy. Here 
grammar, literature, and rhetoric grew into shape, 
and here Greek philosophy was finally worsted by 
Christianity. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. "World History and Its Makers," vols. I and IV. 

3. Lord's "Old Pagan Civilizations." 

4. Davidson's "History of Education." 

5. Graves' "History of Education," vol. I. 

6. Mahaflfy's "Old Greek Education." 

7. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

8. De Quincey's "Plato's Republic." 

9. Hegel's "Philosophy of Education." 

10. Walden's "The Universities of Ancient Greece." 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS 79 



QUESTIONS 

1. Give an account of the tribal migrations out of which the 
Hellenes or Greeks presently emerged triumphant and of the 
origin of Hellenic tribes. 

2. What was the peril to which the Persian War exposed 
Greek development ? Explain the course of events and the issue. 

3. Sketch briefly the golden age of Athens, her terrible fall, and 
the end of Greek independence. 

4. Show that the same individuahsm present in Greek wars 
and supremacies was the dominating thing in Greek religion. 

5. Give an account of the Greek gods and the weak moral 
guarantees of Greek ideas about the "future state." 

6. Discuss the Greek oracles, together with the temples and 
priests. 

7. Describe the sacred games of the Greeks, and show how 
they served as a means in the development of the Greeks. 

8. Account for the character of education in the Homeric age. 

9. What was the origin of Sparta ? For what social system 
does this origin account? How did Lycurgus organize Sparta 
for her destiny? 

10. Explain the detailed fitness of means and ends in the 
Lycurgian scheme of Spartan education. Judge the system in 
detail. 

11. Greek individualism is seen to the best advantage in 
Ionian Athens. The story of transition from monarchy to de- 
mocracy is conspicuously the story of individualism. Tell this 
story. 

12. What were the distinctive ideals of Athenian education? 

13. Explain the system of means and ends in Athenian edu- 
cation, going into full details. Judge the system by its results 
to history and in the light of psychology, sociology, etc. 

14. Account for the distinction between the "new" and the 
"old" in Greek education. 

15. Who were the Greek Sophists? What produced them? 
Describe their work of "adjustment" in detail and explain why 
the conservatives opposed the Sophists. 

16. Account for the rise of Greek philosophy. 

17. How may we account for the high purpose of Pythagoras 
and for the impress which he left on education? 



80 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

1 8. Describe his work at Crotona, going into the details of 
curriculum and method. Judge his pedagogy by modern stand- 
ards. 

19. What can you find in the making of Socrates to help us 
account for his ideas and for the force which he gave his ideas ? 

20. Explain the philosophic position of Socrates over against 
that of Protagoras. 

21. Distinguish the methods by which Socrates hoped to 
make men think for themselves, and choose between them. 

22. Whom do we usually associate most intimately with 
Socrates in the Hst of his disciples ? What did Xenophon con- 
tribute to education? 

23. Use "the making of Plato" to account as fully as possible 
for the loftiness of his ideals and for the immortal force which 
he gave these ideals. 

24. Describe the services which Plato rendered the cause of 
education through his "Academy" and his "Republic." 

25. Examine the fitness of means to ends as set forth in Plato's 
"Republic." 

26. Why can the twentieth century not accept Plato's "Re- 
public" outright? 

27. To what extent do the influences which helped to make 
Aristotle account for the views which he held and for the place 
which he holds to-day? 

28. Explain the services which Aristotle rendered the cause 
of education through his "Lyceum" and his books. Compare 
his "Politics" with Plato's "Republic." Estimate the worth of 
Aristotle in the light of modern standards. 

29. Account for the philosophical schools, the later schools 
of rhetoric, and the Greek universities. Examine them, going 
into the details. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 
ROME 

The "Latins" of Alba Longa, who founded Rome 
753 B. C, if tradition holds, were Aryans, like the 
Greeks, and a part of the same great migration. But 
the Etruscans, whose presence north of the Tiber in- 
duced the Latins to found Rome, were, if we mistake 
not, identical with the Pelasgians noticed in Chapter 
VII, and therefore a Turano-Semitic people. The 
conquest of the Etruscan Veii (396 B. C.) by the 
Latins was the beginning of Aryan supremacy; but 
the usual amalgamation of stocks produced the com- 
positeness of Roman ideals and Roman history as 
known to later centuries. "The Turanians contrib- 
uted the bulk of the rehgious notions and rites; the 
Semites the prosaic practicality and thirst for power; 
the Aryans, with their language, their poHtical forms." * 

Ambition. — The origin of Rome, and the perils to 
which hostile neighbors afterward exposed her very 
existence, soon produced the co-operative ambition 
which finally gave her a world-empire. The first task 
to which this co-operative ambition of composite 
Rome applied herself was the conquest of all Italy. 
This task had been all but accomplished when Pyrrhus, 
cousin of Alexander the Great, had been forced to 

* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 107. 
81 



82 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

abandon Tarentum, the heart of Magna Graecia (272 
B. C.)- But Rome, now master of Italy, coveted the 
supremacy to which Phoenician Carthage had attained 
on sea, and thus came the three Punic wars, stretch- 
ing over more than a century, Rome finally conquering 
Carthage (146 B. C.)- In the meantime ambitious 
Rome had conquered almost all the lands that touch 
the sea, including not only northern Africa but parts 
of Spain, Asia Minor, and Greece. 

During all these centuries, reaching from 509 B. C. 
to 146 B. C, Roman ambition had not ceased to be 
co-operative, and Rome had continued to be a republic, 
but out of the wars and turmoils that followed the 
conquests for a century emerged the fateful Trium- 
virates. Another step — and co-operative ambition 
had succumbed to personal ambition — the republic 
was dead — empire was born. The story of the twelve 
Csesars and their successors, together with the gradual 
decay and final fall of Rome (476 A. D.), is too well 
known to require repetition. 

Individuality. — The co-operative ambition of Rome 
grew out of the common peril to which both patrician 
and plebeian were exposed, and gave rise first to the 
Laws of the Twelve Tables (451 B. C.) and later to 
the Laws of Licinius (367 B. C). While, therefore, 
in Rome as in Sparta, war became the business of the 
state, the Roman state as a social whole saved herself 
— and individuality- — from caste limitations, and hon- 
ored all human relations that served both the indi- 
vidual and the state. This reconcihation between 
the Roman social whole and individuality explains the 
well-known reverence for home ties and useful occu- 
pations. Thus the "sense" of justice for which Greek 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS S3 

individuality kept striving was concretely realized in 
Roman life. While, as a consequence, the Roman peo- 
ple as a whole were sedate, serious, and self-controlled, 
they were also proud and satisfied. "To be a Roman 
was to be greater than a king." 

Religion. — "The prosaic practicality and thirst for 
power" — the Semitic trait so conspicuous in Roman 
ambition and Roman vocations — appears as a utili- 
tarian, or practical, tendency in their religion. For, 
although the Romans, as we should expect, held funda- 
mentally to the same nature-worship as their Greek 
cousins, they did not clothe their gods in beautiful 
human shapes, and worship them in joyous play, but 
rather felt their presence as moral forces with whom 
serious bargains must be made, and to whom placating 
sacrifices must be offered. This feeling is seen especially 
in the reverence paid to the household "Lares and 
Penates," and the guardian "Vestal Virgins." To the 
former, which typified family unity, frequent sacrifices 
were made by the father at shrines v/ithin the home 
itself; and to the latter, which typified the larger 
family, or state, the Vestal Virgins as state guardians 
sacrificed at public shrines or temples.* Originally the 
king was the chief priest, and the pontijex maximus of 
the repubhc was a civil functionary. 

The more serious and dignified aspect of Roman 
religion held fast even when conquering Rome in her 
new intellectuahsm and aesthetic hunger took the 
Greek gods bodily into her heart. It was only when 
Rome in her later general decay made place in her 
"Pantheon" for the gods of all nations that religion 
lost its power as a moral sanction. 

* Graves' "History of Education," vol. I, p. 240. 



84 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Although in the course of events, therefore, Rome 
had adopted Greek religion, and with it its expressive 
architecture, literature, and philosophy, she failed to 
contribute much to these adoptions — except in law — 
and oratory — because she enslaved them all to ends 
of utility. 

EDUCATION OF THE ROMANS 

The course of political events, as briefly outlined 
above, together with the social and religious phases 
that accompanied this course of events, prepares us 
for the details of Roman education. These details 
can be gathered up most conveniently under two heads, 
namely, the *'old" and the "new" education. 

THE OLD EDUCATION 

The first, or old, period in Roman education extends 
from her earliest history to the time when Rome 
became completely infiltrated with Greek ideals. 
Roughly speaking, this did not occur before 146 B. C, 
when Rome finally conquered Greece, and was aston- 
ished into captivation by the wealth of art which con- 
quering armies poured into her lap; but the dividing- 
line in point of time is only a text-book convenience, 
for after all the amalgamation of old and nev/ ideals 
had begun as early as the conquest of Magna Graecia, 
and was not complete before the age of Augustus. 

Old Ideals. — The primary purpose of early Roman 
education evidently was military and industrial effi.- 
ciency, conserved by reverence for the gods and rever- 
ence for necessary laws. In other words, what Rome 
needed and wanted was good soldiers, good citizens, 
good industrials. These efiiciencies placed the em- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 85 

phasis upon such qualities as strength, patriotic cour- 
age, reverence for Roman laws and institutions, ca- 
pacity for doing things that must be done, and gravity 
of mind and mien. Underlying and supporting all 
requirements was respectful piety. The Laws of the 
Twelve Tables was the first constitutional embodiment 
of Roman ideals. 

The Home. — The fundamental educational agencjr 
upon which Rome relied was the home. The parents 
held themselves responsible to the state for the bring- 
ing up of boys and girls in strict accord with ideals. 
In theory the father's authority was absolute, extend- 
ing even to possible divorce, infanticide, slavery, and 
other despotic treatment, but in practice the Roman 
wife and mother became more than her husband's 
rival in influence. The Roman home tie, like that of 
the Jews, was a religious institution, and the Roman 
father was not an exile, as he was among the Spar- 
tans. And yet, because he was needed much on the 
fields and in the camp, or, if a patrician, in the forum, 
the mother who, as in the case of Cornelia, loved her 
children, became an important factor in their early 
education. She shared with her husband the task of 
teaching religion and morals, and also the simple les- 
sons in reading, writing, and the number calculations 
of the daily life. The old Roman family, in short, 
worshipped the gods of the home and crops and war, 
teaching the children the meaning of the sacred rites 
and ceremonies by example and by precept. To these 
rehgious instructions, training in obedience, frugality, 
industry, and military courage was added for the boys, 
while the girls became their mother's second self in 
domestic life.* 

* Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." f 



86 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Beyond the Home. — Besides the home, the early 
Romans used "life itself" as means to ends in educa- 
tion. The boys learned such vocations as fanning 
and business from fathers and elders. 

(i) The patrician's son could gather much from close 
association with the father in the "forum," where the 
father met and dealt with his "clients," or dependents. 
After Roman tradition and Roman aspirations had 
taken written form in the Laws of the Twelve Tables 
(451 B. C.) they were hung in the forum and had to 
be committed by the boys. It appears highly proba- 
ble, however, that there were schools near the forum 
very early in the history of the Roman republic, and 
that in these schools the Laws of the Twelve Tables, 
as well as reading and writing, were well-recognized 
parts of the curriculum. 

(2) The early Romans, always looking forward to 
the possibilities of war with hostile neighbors, paid 
much attention to the body. Outdoor life for boys, 
agriculture and allied vocations, served the purposes 
in part, but above and beyond all incidental means 
was training in the use of arms, which must always 
have been obligatory on the Roman youth. 

THE NEW EDUCATION 

Rome first came in contact with Greek culture in 
the early days of the republic, if not before the re- 
public, and a steady infiltration of the new ideas 
was inevitable. It was not, however, till about the 
middle of the third century (230 B. C.) that regular 
schools were opened. The oldest schoolmaster known 
to us was Spurius Carvilius. He and his fellows, how- 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 87 

ever, were at a great disadvantage for want of school- 
books, there being no such thing as an available Roman 
literature. In a short time this deficiency was sup- 
plied by the rise of a literature imitated from the 
Greek, the works of Naevius, Livius Andronicus, En- 
nius, Pacuvius, and Plautus. The Latin version of 
the "Odyssey" (250 B. C.) by the second of these now 
became for the Romans what the Homeric poems 
generally had long been for the Greeks. At the same 
time the knowledge of the Greek language became 
more and more an accomplishment of the upper 
classes, being imparted by slave tutors. When at 
last, in 146 B. C., Greece became a Roman prov- 
ince, "captive Greece took captive her rude con- 
queror." * 

Cato. — There was much opposition on the part of 
conservatives. Men like the elder Cato would not 
make any compromise with Greek innovations. We 
are told that because he feared the corrupting influx of 
Greek ideas, he supervised the education of his boy 
with special care. Not content that the learned slave 
tutor whom he had employed for his son should beat 
a free-born boy, or that a Roman boy should owe his 
education to a Greek, he taught the boy himself. 
"This sturdy Roman," as Plutarch calls him, taught 
his son to read, "wrote histories, in large characters, 
with his own hand, so that his son, without stirring 
out of the house, might learn to know about his coun- 
trymen and forefathers," "taught him his grammar, 
law, and gymnastics." "Nor did he only show him 
how to throw a dart, to fight in armor, and to ride, 
but to box also, and to endure both heat and cold, 

* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 109. 



88 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and to swim over the most rapid and roughest 
rivers." * 

Horace. — But sturdy Cato and his fellows failed to 
stem the tide, as we see in the education of the poet 
Horace. In his sixth satire Horace tells us that his 
father, not satisfied with anything but the best, re- 
fused to send the boy to school to Flavius, the school- 
master of Venusia, the poet's birthplace, but carried 
him to Rome, where the Graeco-Roman education had 
already acquired much perfection, and "where the 
sons of the centurions, the great men there, used to go, 
with their bags and slates on the left arm, taking the 
teacher's fee on the ides of eight months in the year." 
This description of little Horace going to school gives 
us a glimpse not only into a ''new" school world, but 
a neat little summing up of school details in Augustan 
Rome. 

New Ideals. — As soon as Rome had become mistress 
of Italy, and still more in the later days of the republic 
when, through the Punic wars and after-wars, she had 
gained world-power, but especially when through the 
great triumvirates the republic succumbed to empire, 
the old ideal of military and industrial efficiency gave 
way to the new ideal of Greek culture for the enriched 
patricians. What Rome now needed most was not 
great armies and conquering leaders but great states- 
men who should shape the policy of empire. Law and 
oratory, together with philosophy, thus became the 
means to the ends in view. The *'old" industries, in- 
cluding agriculture, became the function of slaves and 
subject classes, and thus in time completely subor- 
dinate in the new ideal. The new system of means to 
* Painter's "History of Education," p. 80. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 89 

ends may be conveniently treated under three or four 
conspicuous heads, namely, elementary schools, gram- 
mar-schools, schools of rhetoric and philosophy, or, as 
we should say, elementary schools, high schools, and 
universities. 

Elementary Schools. — Apart from Livy's account* 
of the seizure of Virginia on her way to school, and the 
reference of Dionysius to the same event, we have no 
proof that elementary schools existed in Rome before 
the period of Hellenization. The Romans called the 
elementary school Indus (play), probably because it 
was merely added to the home as a sort of play. 

There were no school buildings such as we have in 
mind to-day. The school was held in hired rooms, 
porches, and other open spaces. It was only in the 
best centuries of the republic that the school was com- 
fortably housed and the place properly equipped and 
beautified. 

The Roman children of the new era began to go to 
school at the age of six or seven. In imitation of the 
Greeks, a slave called pedagogue or custos accompanied 
the boy all day, and a nurse the girl. This slave was 
often a Greek from whom the children might learn to 
speak, and who should act as a sort of moral chaperon, 
but the function of the Roman pedagogue was prob- 
ably always of less importance than in Greece. 

Reading, writing, and arithmetic, if these had not 
been lea.rned at home, from tutors, were the first sub- 
jects studied. The literary curriculum embraced 
stories of heroes, ballads, the Laws of the Twelve 
Tables, and later suitable selections from the transla- 
tion of the "Odyssey" by Andronicus. 

* Book III, p. 44. 



90 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The teacher was called the literator (teacher of let- 
ters). He was usually a Greek or Syro- Greek f reed- 
man, without much special training, and accordingly 
without social standing. Though required by the 
state, he was not employed nor supervised by it. 

The alphabetic method, as Quintilian tells us, was 
used in teaching reading. Writing was taught on 
wax tablets, with the stylus, the teacher guiding the 
pupil's hand at first. When the letters had been mas- 
tered written work was combined with the literary 
works of the curriculum. An abacus was used in con- 
nection with the fingers in teaching counting. The 
Roman notation made written calculations very diffi- 
cult. Sums were worked on wax tablets. Chanting 
was combined with rehgious and moral instructions. 
The memoriter methods of the school made corporal 
punishment a special feature. In the fresco of Her- 
culaneum is pictured a flogging scene. The victim is 
mounted on a comrade's back, his feet held by another, 
while the master beats him on the bare back. 

The school day began early in the morning and lasted 
all day, with only a brief intermission for luncheon. 
But there were frequent holidays and a long summer 
vacation. 

Grammar- Schools. — The new era produced gram- 
mar, or secondary, schools before the close of the third 
century B. C. They were high schools, somewhat like 
the grammar-schools of American colom'al times, pre- 
paring ambitious boys for the schools of rhetoric. At 
first the Roman grammar-school was a Greek school, in 
charge of a Greek teacher, called the grammaticus, or 
literatus, who planned the curriculum. Latin grammar- 
schools began to arise- about a century B. C. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 91 

The curriculum, which was pretty uniform, con- 
sisted primarily of grammar and literature. The 
authors most used at first were Homer and Hesiod, 
but later also Vergil and Horace. The explanation of 
these authors by the teacher was made through such 
useful adjuncts as mythology, history, geography, 
astronomy, geometry, and music. 

Although the grammaticus was not a state employee^ 
he was usually well qualified for his work, and there- 
fore so well paid that when he had a large school he 
could house it not only comfortably but with suitable 
equipment and the beautifying arts. 

The boys who could afford to attend a grammar- 
school usually entered at the age of twelve, and re- 
mained about three years. Nevertheless, they were 
not always happy in their school life, for while the 
methods of work were better, the necessary mechani- 
cal grind, which often ran into foolish trifling, as 
Seneca tells us, led to frequent and cruel punishments. 

Schools of Rhetoric. — During the second century 
B. C. schools of rhetoric, that is, schools of public 
speaking, or oratory, began to be imported from Greece 
to Rome, and this in spite of decrees and edicts to the 
contrary. Neither Greek nor Latin schools of rhetoric, 
therefore, were at all common before the Augustan 
age, and they were patronized chiefly by those ambi- 
tious young men who hoped to become orators and 
statesmen. 

The curriculum offered commands twentieth-cen- 
tury attention, both for its fitness of means to ends 
and for the underlying conception of the dignity of 
Roman statesmanship. "Besides a knowledge of the 
technic of oratory, they furnished a linguistic, literary, 



92 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and scientific education of broad scope, and even a 
training in philosophy, especially Stoicism. Thus 
they covered all the subjects later included under the 
seven liberal arts — grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, music, 
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, although, as 
would be expected, these studies were given some- 
thing of a practical turn." * The ambitious young 
men who took this course began the work at about 
the age of sixteen, when they assumed the garb of 
manhood, or toga virilis, and finished it in two or three 
years, according to ability. 

The Universities. — In the Augustan age private 
teachers of philosophy became common, and ambitious 
graduates from the schools of rhetoric might, like 
Cicero, go to the university of Athens, Alexandria, or 
Rhodes. Presently, in the first century A. D., when 
universities, the result of Greek impulse, sprang up 
everywhere, Rome herself became a centre. The Uni- 
versity of Rome sprang up "from a library founded 
by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace about 75 A. D., 
and a half-century later, through the addition of pro- 
fessors and a splendid building, Hadrian organized it 
into the AthencBum. Here at first courses in liberal 
arts, especially in grammar and rhetoric, were given; 
and somewhat later, professional work in law, medi- 
cine, architecture, and mechanics was added." f 

Estimate. — (i) As a system of means to ends the 
"old" education of Rome really produced the military 
and industrial efiiciency comporting with her ambi- 
tion for world-empire without enslaving individuality, 
and thus combined what was best in Sparta and 
Athens, but gave it a higher trend by making the 

* Graves' "History of Education," vol. I, p. 261. f Graves. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 93 

useful rather than the merely beautiful the thing 
most worth while. 

(2) Although this education continued to be a pri- 
vate rather than a public trust, and thus suffered the 
usual defects of non-professional supervision, it em- 
phasized the educational function of the home and 
"life itself," points well in line with the highest ideals 
of the twentieth century.* 

(3) The "new" education, more cultural than the 
old, subsidized this culture to the useful, and thus nar- 
rowed opportunity to the few most closely identified 
with state fortunes — an aristocracy rather than a 
democracy. 

(4) While the new education, for the sake of aris- 
tocracy, ambitiously appropriated the whole range of 
Hellenic curriculum, pedagogy, as we gather from the 
criticism of representatives Hke Cicero, Seneca, Quin- 
tilian, and Plutarch, lagged far behind the best psy- 
chology. 

(5) Even if the Roman woman of the better class 
was generally required to have an elementary educa- 
tion, and was not excluded from the higher opportuni- 
ties of the new education, she was subject to "con- 
vention," and usually obtained such education from 
hired tutors in her private home, or from her more 
fortunate husband. 

(6) It is true that imperial Rome, especially in her 
decay, subsidized education, through salaried teachers 
and through all sorts of privileges, thus robbing at 
least higher education of serious content and purpose, 
very much as Prussian Hohenzollernism, by accepting 
sixteenth-century Protestantism, deprived the latter of 

* The Rockefeller Foundation ideals. 



94 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

its initial democratizing element; but the one out- 
standing fact, and the fact that describes the special 
mission of Rome in education, is the world-wide trans- 
mission of the new education which her genius for or- 
ganization made possible, and her enrichment of the 
same by laws which are still foundations. Add to 
this, that by nationalizing Christianity, Constantine 
the Great yoked this transmission with its final master 
and redeemer, and then we have a record of achieve- 
ment of which Rome may well be proud. 

ROMAN REPRESENTATIVES 

Rome never produced Platos and Aristotles who 
could think new philosophies, but in her age of glory 
and decay she did produce great orators and states- 
men, who were at the same time interpreters and re- 
formers of the system which produced them, and true 
disciples of philosophy. Such, for example, were 
Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian, and others. 

CICERO 

"Cicero was born io6 B. C, in Arpinum, the birth- 
place also of Marius, His father was a knight of good 
social position and the son was well educated in prepa- 
ration for the bar and for public life." He assumed 
the toga virilis at sixteen, and studied law, oratory, and 
philosophy. Afterward he travelled in Greece and 
Asia Minor to improve his education. He studied 
oratory at Rhodes. Here his teacher, Apollonius, a 
celebrated rhetorician, once requested him to deliver 
a Greek declamation. The audience was delighted, 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 95 

and, after a sorrowful silence, Apollonius said: "You 
have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece 
my pity and commiseration, since those arts and that 
eloquence, which are the only glories that remain to 
her, will now be transferred to Rome." 

Apollonius prophesied correctly, for it was through 
Cicero and his distinguished services that Rome really 
did become a very centre of oratory. In his treatise 
on oratory he lays great stress on morals as the dis- 
tinguishing quality of a true orator. True to Roman 
utilitarianism, he believed the republic needed the ser- 
vice of such good men, and therefore, as means to 
ends, he advocated a comprehensive course in history, 
literature, and philosophy, in addition to law, in the 
training of an orator. The wisdom of this advice has 
never been controverted. Had the fate of Rome been 
committed to orators, or statesmen, of such a type, 
empire might never have followed on the heel of the 
republic. It was this preference for character as the 
highest thing in education that led him to oppose the 
brutal corporal punishments which disgraced Roman 
education, and he saw, as we now see, that the cur- 
riculum which he proposed would reduce its need to 
a minimum. 

SENECA 

Seneca was born at Cordova, Spain, in 4 B, C. 
His father was a distinguished Spanish rhetorician, 
who gave his son a liberal Roman education. Seneca 
became a successful orator and attained to high politi- 
cal honors under the Emperor Claudius. On account 
of an alleged connection with a royal plot, he was exiled 
to the island of Corsica, where he spent eight long 



96 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

years, but found consolation in philosophy. Later, 
recalled to Rome, he was honored with the office of 
pretor and that of consul, and acquired a vast fortune. 
The empress selected him as her confidential adviser 
and intrusted him with the education of her son, the 
future Nero. 

He was probably the most eminent Latin writer of 
his age. He was a Stoic philosopher, and his books 
have been called Stoic sermons. He touches on edu- 
cation with a master's hand. Like Cicero before him, 
he believed that character Is not only better than 
learning but that it is the greatest thing in education. 
He had a profound conception of the true God, and 
said that in building character "the will of man should 
be harmonized with the will of God." This formula, 
it is true, can be realized completely only when we 
know God's will in Christ, but it is no wonder that 
Seneca should be called "the Heathen seeker after 
God." His conception of the relation of religion to 
character, and the world's need of such character, 
convinced him, as it had Cicero, that curriculum and 
the teacher's personality rather than force should be 
the means to the end, and in this conclusion we mod- 
erns also believe. 

QUINTILIAN 

Quintilian was born about 35 A. D., or a little later, 
at Calagurris, Spain. The atmosphere of culture 
which Rome alone afforded drew him there early in 
Kfe. Here, hoping to take up the profession of law, 
he pursued his studies under the special direction of 
his father, who himself was a celebrated rhetorician, 
and to whom he owed much of his future fame. He 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 97 

abandoned a successful practice in law to become a 
teacher of oratory. By this time oratory had acquired 
high reputation, and Vespasian, recognizing the eminent 
worth of Quintilian, granted him an allowance from 
the public treasury. He won the distinguishing title 
of "Professor of Eloquence," and Domitian, in appre- 
ciation of his splendid work, endowed him with con- 
sular rank. That this Roman professor of oratory 
was able to snatch supremacy from his Greek contem- 
poraries and hold his place as a teacher, highly hon- 
ored and highly endowed, for twenty years — difficult 
years for the empire — surely entitles him to a respect- 
ful hearing on the subject of Roman education. 

He withdrew from public life at the early age of 
fifty-three, and devoted the rest of his life to his "In- 
stitutes of Oratory," a work in twelve volumes, in 
which, with the idea of outlining the education of an 
orator, he presented all after-ages with the most valu- 
able treatise on education in general. This great work 
has long been considered the most valuable contribu- 
tion of antiquity. 

The educational views of Quintilian rest on the fun- 
damental conception that the orator is "a good man 
skilled in speaking." He adds: "I say not only that 
he who would answer my idea of an orator must be 
a good man, but that no man unless he be good, can 
ever be an orator." With this end in view, and be- 
lieving with Plato that wisdom is the way to goodness, 
Quintilian undertook to interpret the education of an 
orator from infancy to mature philosophy. 

(i) A born psychologist, he saw, as the German 
Froebel saw much later, that education should begin 
in play — and that as early as possible. 



98 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(2) Like Froebel, he recognized the child's imitating 
powers, and therefore advocated nurses, pedagogues, 
and teachers worthy of such imitation. As the child's 
associate, so the child in speech, and action. 

(3) Like Froebel, he saw the children unfold more 
perfectly under the stimulating impulse of like asso- 
ciates, and therefore, although he was conscious of the 
possibilities of evil in the public schools, he advocated 
public schools as superior to the Roman tutors, still 
so common in his time. 

(4) Beheving with Cicero and Seneca and "a. host 
of saints" that character-building should be the main 
purpose of education, he, like these, argued eloquently 
that not force (to which Roman custom still submitted) 
but the teacher's personality and the school curriculum 
are the means par excellence. 

(5) And Quintilian, with all great educators from 
Socrates to Madame Montessori, believed in the sa- 
credness of individuality, and therefore advocated 
earnestly, just as Froebel does, that ''child-study" is 
the first and last and greatest task. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Lord's "Old Pagan Civilizations." 

3. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

4. Davidson's "History of Education." 

5. Graves' "History of Education," vol. I. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Describe the origin of Rome and trace the resulting am- 
bitious course of empire. 

2. Trace the course of events in which the co-operative am- 
bition of the Romans recognized Roman individuality. 



EDUCATION OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS 99 

3. How did the Greek nature- worship, which the Romans 
adopted, acquire its well-known utilitarianism, and what were 
the effects on Roman religion as a moral guarantee and as a 
motive in Roman contributions to after-ages? 

4. What, in accord with her fundamental needs, were the edu- 
cational ideals of "old" Rome, and upon what quahties of life 
did these ideals place the emphasis? 

5. Explain the fitness of means to ends in the use which the 
"old" Romans made of the home and "life beyond the home" 
in their system of education. 

6. Trace in detail the course of events in the transition from 
the "old" to the "new" in Roman education. 

7. What was the attitude of the elder Cato and the father of 
Horace toward the influx of Greek ideas into Rome, and what 
did they do for their sons? 

8. What, in accord with her "new" needs, were the ideals of 
the "new" education in Rome? How did these new ideals 
affect social classes? 

9. Describe the elementary schools of "new" Rome, going 
into the details of curriculum, form, and methods. Do the 
same things with the grammar-schools, rhetorical schools, and 
universities. 

10. What were the best and the worst things in the "old" 
and the "new" education of Rome? 

11. Account fully for "the making" and services of Cicero, 
Seneca, and Quintilian. 



PART II 
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

CHAPTER IX 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 
EARLY CHRISTIANITY 

To recapitulate — conquered Greece was conquering 
her Roman conqueror, pouring out her culture far and 
wide, east and south and west, thus reproducing her 
"Greek self" in far-flung schools and universities. 
And Rome thus conquered by Greek intellect and 
beauty-love powerfully orientalized, was giving con- 
crete form to abstract thought, and endowing with a 
blighting practicality all she was adopting. 

It was into the midst of these events, and when the 
Maccabees had almost ceased in their patriotic strug- 
gles with Rome for Jewish nationality, that there was 
born in a remote corner of the world-empire, namely, 
in Bethlehem of Judea, the world's Messiah, Jesus 
Christ. And although the angels sang "Peace on 
earth, good- will to men," the great ones of the earth 
could not foresee that all who had gone before him 
had but groped in the dark, and that he alone brought 
light into the darkness, saved the gold from the dross, 
and set the world in quest of final ideals. 

100 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATON 101 

CHRIST 

In order to understand even to a limited degree the 
educational revolution which Christ's coming pro- 
duced, and also in order that we may furnish ourselves 
with his world-conquering ideals, we would gladly here 
and now make him the subject of serious and sympa- 
thetic study. 

In the Making. — The fact that Christ was born in 
the golden days of Rome, when Augustus Caesar ruled 
the world, and at a time when God's chosen people 
had made large adjustments to their theocratic system 
of education in order to adapt it to postexile condi- 
tions (see chapter on Jewish education), helps us to 
understand at least the important human elements — 
not to speak of his divinity — which entered into the 
making of the world's incomparable teacher. 

Jesus was brought up at Nazareth, where Mary and 
Joseph came with him after their flight from Bethlehem 
to Egypt; and here, at the crossing-place of the na- 
tions, where commerce and military changes afforded 
much liberahzing familiarity with all the neighboring 
races, he hved with them up to the time of his ministry. 

The first teachers of Jesus were Mary and Joseph, 
as all the connections show. It was at their knees 
that he must have learned to read the Scriptures. 

"From the modest but priceless instructions of 
home," as Geikie says in his ''Life of Christ," "Jesus 
would, doubtless, pass to school in the synagogue, 
where he would learn more of the law, and be taught 
to write, or rather, to print, for his writing would be in 
the old Hebrew characters — the only ones then in use." 
Even the "doctors" of Jerusalem, with whom, as we 



102 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

recall, he tarried for instructions on his first memorable 
journey with his parents to the Holy City, marvelled 
at his progress. 

The great national festivals regularly held every 
year at Jerusalem, namely, those of the Passover, the 
Pentecost, and the Tabernacle, must have contributed 
powerfully to the education of a mind like that of 
Jesus.* Then, too, in July, October, January, and 
March, the Jewish community at Nazareth observed 
different events in the national history with more or 
less strictness, thus contributing not a little to the 
general effect. 

In its quiet and divinely appointed security, the life 
of Jesus of Nazareth must have been a wonderful 
education in the book of nature. The gospels show 
most strikingly that nothing in his environment escaped 
the eye of Jesus. That he saw with unerring keen- 
ness all the life about him appears from the illustra- 
tions which he used in teaching. The painted lilies 
of the field, the sparrows on the wing, the shepherd's 
lost lamb — these and all the rest are his intimates. 
Nor does he fail to note the child at play, the toiler 
at his tasks, the beggar at the gate, the prince in his 
apparel, or the woman in her home — he sees and hears 
and knows them all. "He must have looked out on 
the world of men from the calm retreat of those years 
as he doubtless often did on the matchless landscape 
from the hills above the village. The strength and 
weakness of the systems of the day; the lights and 
shadows of the human world would be watched and 
noted with never-tiring survey, as were the hills and 
valleys, the clouds and sunshine of the scene around." 
* Geikie's "Life of Christ," p. 144. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 103 

But, humanly speaking, the supreme influence in 
Jesus' own education was not the schooling of the 
synagogue, not the larger moulding of the yearly fes- 
tivals, nor even his intimate contact with nature and 
life about him — the credit of this supreme influence 
must doubtless be given to the Holy Scriptures, which 
he, like Timothy, knew from a child. "In such a 
household as Joseph's we may be sure they were in 
daily use, for there, Jf anywhere, the rabbinical rule 
would be strictly observed, that three who eat together 
without talking of the law are as if they were eating 
(heathen) sacrifices." His profound knowledge of the 
Scriptures is evident to readers of the gospels. When, 
as he frequently did, he exposed the false teachers of 
his day, it was by direct appeal to these Scriptures, 
and even his enemies had to acknowledge him as a 
great teacher. 

In the process of Christ's education, his human na- 
ture was evidently subject to "the same gradual de- 
velopment as in other men, such a development as, 
by its even and steadfast advance, made his life appar- 
ently in nothing different from that of his fellow 
townsmen, else they would not have felt the wonder 
at him which they afterward evinced. The laws 
and processes of ordinary human life must have been 
left to mould and form his manhood — the same habits 
of inquiry; the same need of collision of mind with 
mind." That his divine nature, never separable from 
the human, enriched the whole process, and thus 
helped to produce the transcendent results, we can 
hardly doubt. Only the issue itself, however, is abso- 
lutely plain, and that is that Jesus became the one 
incomparable teacher of all ages. 



104 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Christ's gospel for teachers 

It was largely because they had failed to solve the 
problems of human origin and human destiny — the 
two supreme questions of human reason — that the an- 
cients failed so ignominiously in their educational sys- 
tems as adjustments of the claims of the social whole 
and individuality. These claims simply could not 
be perfectly adjusted until the true relation of man 
to his maker, God, was rightly understood. What 
has just been stated also explains why even the wisest 
of the ancients, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, 
and all the eminent Oriental worthies who preceded 
them, except the Jewish representatives, contributed 
so little that still lives in their proposed educational 
schemes. We owe the perfect adjustment of all hu- 
man relations to Christ, and him alone; for he alone 
taught us our true sonship with God the Father, and 
the moral stewardship of such sonship. The ''chosen 
people" knew God as a person, the "maker of heaven 
and earth and all that in them is"; they no longer 
confused God the maker with nature the creature; but, 
under the law and the prophets, they had approached 
him as the God of justice and not also as a God of love. 

Gospel for Teachers. — When Christ taught even the 
least and the last of his disciples to think of God as 
"Our Father," he really taught not only the father- 
hood of God, but also the brotherhood of man, and 
the immortality of man. The last two are evident 
and inseparable deductions from the first, and have 
continued to be the fundamental motives in a series of 
educational revolutions that may not cease until time 
itself must cease. The immeasurable dignity and 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 105 

worth which these two Christian doctrines give to in- 
dividuality illumines, as if in letters of gold, the func- 
tion of education as adjustment to life itself — life now, 
and life hereafter. 

Christian Ideal. — Henceforth the claims of God the 
Father must of course be primary, and those of the 
social whole and the individual, secondary. "Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things 
shall be added." In this new adjustment the individual 
gains his freedom from the despotism to which he was 
subject among the ancients, and the social whole must 
gain that vast uplift which comes from the conscious- 
ness of sonship, brotherhood, and immortality, as these 
have been brought to light in Christ. The distinguish- 
ing obligations of Christian education may be con- 
veniently considered under such heads as nationality, 
caste, slavery, women, and children. 

Nationality. — In order that education may be really 
"Christian," it must recognize, as we have seen, the 
origin and consequent nobility of man as man; it must 
so relate the individual to the social whole as to make 
it possible for each to serve the highest interests of 
the other; and it must recognize the fact — most im- 
portant of all — that as a child of God, endowed with 
moral faculty, each and every man is responsible 
to God, in time and eternity, for the life which he 
lives. 

These ideals of Christian education call upon the 
state as the guardian of the commonwealth to provide 
education for all classes and conditions of men, to or- 
ganize and supervise effectively all such forms of edu- 
cation as may tend to ameliorate and perfect the 
philanthropic, moral, and economic welfare of the social 



106 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

whole, and finally to encourage the church as the guard- 
ian of eternal interests to improve the morals of the 
social whole through rehgion. 

Caste. — No such high ideals served as motives in 
the caste systems of the ancients. Their systems 
robbed countless multitudes of human beings of all 
educational opportunities, sacrificed the welfare of the 
many to the few, and, in this way as in other things, 
failed to satisfy the rightful claims of God. It is the 
glory of Christianity that it opens the door of the 
school to every boy and girl, thus bidding all alike, 
subject only to God's gifts and requirements, to quahfy 
for fife here and hereafter. 

Slavery. — Slavery was the invariable concomitant 
of ancient caste systems. It took no account of the 
soul, except so far as intelligence and faithfulness 
would increase the value of service, and the body of 
the slave was the master's chattel, or worse than that. 
The slave could be bought, sold, bartered for another, 
punished, and killed, at the master's will. The feeling 
of infinite "distance" which "color" and "race" 
sometimes produce in us, was largely present. That 
in origin and destiny the master and slave were brothers 
had not occurred even to such philosophers as Plato 
and Aristotle. For the reasons just enumerated, the 
children of slaves, as a rule, except in later Greece and 
Rome, received no education. Degeneracy was the 
fatal result. 

It was only when the slave and his master began to 
understand the Saviour's "Our Father," that the 
shackles began to fall, and that these humbled sons of 
God could not be deprived much longer of the privilege 
of education and the destiny of man as man. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 107 

Women. — Woman occupied an inferior position 
among all the ancients, except perhaps among the 
Jews. In some countries, Persia for example, even the 
women of the higher castes were hardly better off than 
slaves. Only a few of the great philosophers, among 
them Plato, believed that women were equally capable 
of education with men. Those ancients who had at- 
tained to the concept of immortality appear to have 
denied this hope to woman. 

The whole attitude of Jesus is opposed to this an- 
cient treatment of woman. He makes her man's 
equal and honored helpmeet in all the spheres of hfe, 
and his redeemed coheir of life eternal. She is there- 
fore entitled to all the privileges of education which 
fit her for her noble destiny. Only the Jewish women 
were mentally and institutionally ready for such "good 
news." It was long before the world-empire which 
Christ presently conquered could understand the mes- 
sage in full. 

Children. — The ancients, as we here recall, failed to 
recognize the rights of childhood. Weaklings and 
cripples had but small chance to live. Infanticide, ex- 
posure, slavery, and other fates were not considered 
crimes against childhood. The great possibilities of 
primary education, apart from the home, were poorly 
understood, as we gather from the lack of provisions 
for the purpose, and from the expressed opinions of 
philosophers. 

Jesus bade his disciples let the little ones come to 
him. Their very helplessness appealed to his love. 
He who "knew" what was in "man," and foresaw the 
possibihties of education for a little child, urged his 
followers to cherish them and to "bring them up in 



108 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the fear of the Lord." The world into which the 
Saviour of little children came was not easily convinced 
that they are entitled to the privilege of special educa- 
tion. In this respect as in others, thinkers generally 
agreed with common practice. Quintilian, as we re- 
call, was the notable exception. Perhaps — thanks to 
the Froebels and Montessoris — the world has become 
more nearly "Christian" in child education than in 
any other form. 

Christ must be considered the world's incomparable 
teacher, not only because of the messages of hope that 
he brought, but also because of the methods which he 
used. 

THE METHODS OF CHRIST 

The "divine" in Christ combines with the "human" 
in his pedagogy. This, of course, is the only complete 
explanation of his teaching power, and in this coalition 
of his two natures we cannot hope to follow him com- 
pletely, but perhaps we can follow the human in his 
methods with sufficient exactness to make him our 
great ideal. The human in Christ's method — from 
which, as just acknowledged, we can never wholly 
separate the divine — may be considered under such 
heads as his insight, sympathy, and skill. 

Insight. — In order that we humans may know how 
to adapt means to ends in the teaching process, it is 
necessary for us to study the child. Perfect knowl- 
edge of the child, all other things being correlate, 
is the only final guarantee of perfect pedagogy. The 
most illustrious educational reformers whom the world 
has ever produced have, without exception, deplored 
our imperfect attainment to such knowledge. There 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 109 

may be locked doors and closed windows that will ever 
bar us from the presence chamber of the inmost soul 
of others, and who is there that knows, or can ever 
hope to know completely, even himself ! 

The Saviour of the world was not subject to such 
limitation. Of him of whom it is written that he was 
"Son of God" as well as ''son of man," it is also 
written that "he knew what is in man," and needed 
not that any should testify of him. The most critical 
study of Christ's teaching process, including the wealth 
of his illustrative materials, confirms this judgment. 
In this respect, as in others, he was, as the German 
poet Herder says, "the realized ideal of humanity, "^ 
toward which the teachers of all after-ages must press 
forward into greater nearness, even if his marvellous 
perfection can never be attained. 

Sympathy. — It would be difficult to say offhand 
— perhaps we shall never know — whether the teaching 
process is more dependent upon sympathy or upon 
insight for complete success. There are some things 
bearing on this question that we know very well. 
Teachers who cannot feel what their pupils feel, and 
who do not care, cannot really know the children, 
and seldom work hard enough to win success as teach- 
ers. On the other hand, teachers who really like 
children, set out to ascertain and to do what is best. 
In such cases, the mastery of means to ends is joy. 
Sincere enthusiasm, tireless energy, and patient for- 
bearance, together with other splendid prerequisites of 
success in teaching, are intimately bound up with 
sympathetic attitude. It was this sequential quality 
of sympathy with children that made such educational 
reformers as Pestalozzi and Froebel benefactors of the 



110 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

human race. In other words, sympathy, in all such 
cases, transmutes insight into action. 

Then, too, S3nnpathy is contagious. It captivates 
and charms the child, who therefore lets down the bars 
of many otherwise closed doors, and opens many other- 
wise closed windows of his inmost self. It is this same 
quality that often makes the learner who is hard to 
understand an open book to his mother. 

The divine-human sympathy of Christ makes him 
the unique fact of all history. Just as he, the world's 
Redeemer, "gave himself a ransom for many," so he 
gave himself to all whom he taught. He was the ab- 
solutely faithful friend. In his ministry there was room 
in the heart for the least and the last as well as for the 
greatest. The little ones whom he took up in his arms 
to bless, Mary at his feet choosing the better part, the 
multitudes on whom he had "compassion because 
they had no shepherd," Nicodemus, a ruler of the 
Jews — he gave himself to all alike, according to the 
measure of their needs. 

And in the giving he became the attractive "One 
among ten thousand and altogether lovely" to his 
hearers, nor was there any sacrifice of dignity when 
he turned all distance into nearness. His hearers hung 
in reverent awe upon his words, ready for the message 
he would bring. This infinite sympathy of Christ, 
as well as the momentous fact that he "lived" what he 
taught, let it be reverently said, accounted very largely 
for the recognized propelling force of Christ's ideas. 
The great Napoleon must have felt this connection 
when he said: "Everything in Him amazes me. His 
spirit outreaches mine, and His will confounds me. 
Comparison is impossible between Him and any other 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 111 

being in the world. He is truly a being by Him- 
self." 

Skill. — The unique insight and sympathy of Christ 
as a teacher prepare us for a study of his incomparable 
skill. He drew his illustrations from nature and life 
in perfect conformity to the present and future needs 
of his hearers. Take for example the use which he 
made of "the sower that went forth to sow," the "fig- 
tree" on which the planter found no fruit, "the wind 
that bloweth where it listeth," or the use to which he 
put such parables as the "straight gate" and the 
"narrow way," "if God so clothe the grass," the 
"ninety and nine," etc. The apperceptive relation of 
means to ends in Christ's parables continues to evoke 
the highest praise of expert opinion. The unerring 
aptness of his illustrations, the suggestive wealth of 
implied inductions, and his emphasis on lessons worth 
while, must forever charm and delight those who 
learn at his feet. Even if we cannot hope to approach 
him, we can never be content unless we always try. 
In him who spake as no man ever spake, Karl Schmidt 
sees embodied all "the eternal principles of pedagogy." 

CHRISTIANITY VS. PAGANISM 

The new ideas which Christ brought into the world 
were so new and so revolutionary that they came into 
sharp collision with the old. This was largely true 
with respect to Judaism, in fulfilment of whose law 
and prophets Christ had come, but who could not— 
or would not — recognize their promised king in him 
who had come; and it was specially true with respect 
to paganism, for the ultimate overthrow of which, 



112 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

with all its hideous perversions of God's kingdom, the 
Lord Christ had come. 

A brief study of the various hindrances with which 
early Christianity and Christian education had to 
struggle will prepare us for the study of the actual 
progress of events in the great collision itself. Among 
these hindrances we must include the lowly ranks from 
which the earliest Christian converts were gathered, 
together with their poverty, ignorance, and weakness 
of number, and the persecutions to which the Roman 
emperors subjected them. 

Poverty. — The lowly Nazarene selected as disciples 
Galilean fishermen and others from the common walks 
of life. The converts of Christianity, outside of Judea, 
consisted largely of common toilers, servants, and 
slaves. It goes without saying that they were usually 
poor. And to make matters worse, they would have 
no opportunity to acquire property, nor would it be 
permitted. If property-holders became converts, their 
property was confiscated, and they faced both per- 
secution and death. Under such circumstances there 
was little hope for the education of their children. 

Ignorance. — When it is considered that, in addition 
to their poverty, many of these early Christians, as 
can readily be imagined, were also usually illiterate 
and even ignorant, the desperateness of the case is 
apparent. In thousands of cases these early con- 
verts hardly themselves understood the new religion 
which they accepted simply because it offered "hope," 
and were consequently sorry teachers of their children. 
In spite of all such handicaps these early Christians 
found ways and means to make at least a start in the 
bringing up of children, whom they now were taught 
to regard as "gifts of God." 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 113 

Number. — At first, of course, the number of con- 
verts was too small and too scattered to establish 
schools of their own, even if their poverty and igno- 
rance had not stood in the way. The only thing that 
was left for parents was to teach children what they 
could, or to send them to pagan schools for the rudi- 
ments of learning. Knowing the danger of the latter 
alternative, the early Christians, in order to be ''sepa- 
rate from the world," tried hard to establish schools 
of their own as soon as their number and conditions 
made it possible. Of this we shall learn later on. 

Books. — The fact that there were no Christian 
books made the process of education doubly hard for 
these early Christians, even when they found it possible 
to start schools of their own. Condemning pagan 
literature — for which of course there was reason enough 
— they had to be content with simple oral lessons on 
important topics of faith, together with the simple 
rites and duties of religion. 

Emperors. — The Roman emperors, in the interest 
of poHtics, as we have seen, were usually ready enough 
to grant the gods of the conquered nations a place in 
the Pantheon, but there was no room there for Christ. 
The new value set on individuality and brotherhood 
and purity was so repugnant to haughty, vice-eaten 
imperial Rome, that persecution followed persecution.* 
The Christians, on account of the secret haunts to 
which they repaired for worship, were suspected of all 
sorts of crimes against the state, and this was an addi- 
tional cause for persecution. Under all these cruel 
circumstances, the cause of Christian education suf- 
fered terribly, and yet, as we shall see, substantial 
progress was made almost from the beginning. 
* Myers' "General History." 



114 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

OTHERWORLDLINESS 

The most conspicuous motive in early Christianity 
was the almost universal belief in the nearness of the 
second advent of Christ. This ardent conviction 
placed the emphasis upon the moral and the future life 
— otherworldliness, as George Eliot calls it — instead of 
the earthly and present, which had so long been over- 
emphasized in the pagan world. "There was," as 
Karl Schmidt so eloquently says, "a great withdrawal 
of man within himself, into that part of his nature 
which unites him to God, and that belongs not to the 
perishable, but to the imperishable; not to the visible, 
but to the invisible world. The supernatural laid hold 
of men's minds with a mighty energy. Man, as the 
son of heaven, became a stranger upon this earth, and 
esteemed the splendor of this world as of httle value. 
The world in all its beauty had been tested by an- 
tiquity, and had not afforded the lasting peace prom- 
ised of it. Heaven now took its place, and the citizen 
of heaven displaced in a measure the citizen of earth." 

This world-disowning "asceticism" shaped Chris- 
tian education from the very beginning, and continued 
to be the most powerful impulse all through the Middle 
Ages. We see it at work, as just noted, in the educa- 
tion which the earliest Christians gave their own chil- 
dren, and then in the catechumen schools, the cate- 
chetical schools, and the Church Fathers. 

The Catechumen Schools. — As soon as it became 
possible, through increase of numbers and more fa- 
vorable conditions generally, the Christians of the first 
century, in order to provide their children with the 
kind of education required by their otherworldliness, 
took measures to commit the task to men of special 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 115 

fitness. Thus arose the "catechumen schools," so 
called from a Greek word meaning to instruct orally, 
by asking questions and receiving answers, and then 
adding explanations and corrections. The teachers 
were accordingly called "catechists," and the pupils 
"catechumens." It was the purpose of these schools 
to prepare the catechumens, who gradually included 
prospective converts from Judaism and paganism as 
well as the children of believers, for church membership. 

The course lasted anywhere from a few months, as 
in the beginning, to several years, as in later centuries. 
It included the Ten Commandments, the Lord's 
Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and other articles of faith, 
together with simple psalmody. Sometimes the rudi- 
ments of reading and writing were added. 

The catechist, appointed by the church, and selected 
on account of greater fitness, met his catechumens in 
the local church or in his private home for lesson hours 
several times a week or every day. 

This system of religious and moral instruction be- 
came very general, and continued to be the practice 
after Christianity had vanquished paganism. 

The Catechetical Schools. — The catechetical schools, 
properly so called, were catechumen schools of a higher 
order. It was their purpose to prepare teachers and 
leaders for the church, and to combat successfully all 
prejudice against the church among the great and 
learned. 

The first of these catechetical schools — and the type 
of them all — arose at Alexandria,* the university town 

* It was here, as we recall, that a committee of seventy learned Jews 
had translated the Old Testament into Greek in order that the rising 
generation of Jews might be able to read it in the language now required. 
This translation is known as the " Septuagint." 



116 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of the Ptolemies, about the middle of the second cen- 
tury. Its founder was Athenagoras, so it is said, but 
it first came into prominence through Pantaenus, a 
learned Stoic convert, as its head, 179 A. D. Alex- 
andria* had early become the centre of Jewish Chris- 
tianity, and when, in the course of time, this Christian 
community became numerous and strong enough* to 
open a synagogue or church, they connected therewith 
a school. The community, growing richer and larger, 
could not keep her promising young men from attend- 
ing the lectures of the learned Greek but heathen 
university professors. Thus it came about that, in 
order to counteract the danger of such contact with 
pagan learning, the catechumen school of the Alex- 
andrian synagogue became a theological seminary in 
which the Holy Scriptures were taught side by side 
with Graeco-Roman philosophy. 

No special buildings were appropriated, and the 
catechists, as in the catechumen schools, met the 
student in his own home or some convenient part of 
the church. t 

"The students were of both sexes, of very different 
ages. Some were converts preparing for baptism, 
some idolaters seeking for hght, some Christians read- 
ing, as we should say, for orders or for the cultivation 
of their understanding." { 

At first the course of instruction was not very defi- 
nitely organized, but later it embraced training of a very 
high order in mathematics, physics, philology, philos- 

* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 122. 

■j" The Alexandrian catechists received no fixed salary, but were sup- 
ported by gifts from their pupils. 

X Davidson's "History of Education," p. 123. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 117 

ophy, and theology. All other subjects were to be 
handmaids of theology. The connection was rather a 
compromise than a conflict with heathen learning. 
Clement, one of its earliest and most distinguished 
heads, in describing the attitude of the institution 
toward heathen learning, said: **The Mosaic law and 
heathen philosophy do not stand in direct opposition 
to each other, but are related like fragments of a single 
truth, like the pieces, as it were, of a shattered whole. 
. . . Both prepared the way, but in a different man- 
ner, for Christianity." 

Although the Alexandrian catechetical school, likely 
through its close affiliation with the city university and 
the university Hbrary, to which both the students and 
teachers had access, reached the highest eminence, 
similar institutions flourished at Antioch, Athens, 
Edessa, Nisibis, and elsewhere. Long before these 
schools had reached their greatest attainments, the 
church had begun to organize, at the sees or seats of 
great bishops, the so-called ''cathedral" schools, or 
''theological seminaries" proper. 

The Church Fathers. — The final conflict between 
Christianity and paganism is seen to best advantage 
in the attitude of the " Church Fathers." * They were 
usually converts from the learned classes of paganism. 
Those who were contemporary with Christ's apostles 
are known as the Apostolic Fathers, and the later ones, 
because of the part they took in estabhshing and de- 

* "The early teachers and expounders of Christianity, who, next to 
the Apostles, were the founders, leaders, and defenders of the Christian 
Church, and whose writings, so far as they are extant, are the main 
sources for the history, doctrines, and observances of the Church in 
the early ages," are commonly known as "Church Fathers." 



118 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

fending the doctrines of Christianity, are called the 
"Apologetes," 

Greek Fathers. — During the first three centuries these 
learned Greek converts to Christianity, as noted in 
Clement's case, generally continued to pay a good 
deal of homage to pagan culture, and even when, as 
it happened in the fourth century, this admiration for 
pagan culture waned, Basil the Great and other think- 
ers were not willing to exclude it from Christian schools. 

(i) Justyn Martyr, a second-century converted 
teacher of philosophy, continued to teach Greek phi- 
losophy. He claimed that Socrates, Plato, and Her- 
aclitus were Christians before Christ came, and that 
although philosophy fell short, it had the same high 
ends as Christianity. 

(2) Clement (160-215), the successor of Pantaenus at 
Alexandria, held that Plato was Moses Atticized, and 
that pagan philosophy was a pedagogue to bring the 
world to Christ. 

(3) Origen (185-254), the successor of Clement, and 
the most learned of the Christian Fathers, said, in 
speaking of the sciences of the Greeks: ''Philosophy, 
rightly studied, disposes us to the study of Christi- 
anity." 

(4) St. Basil (331-379), in whose century the oppo- 
sition of the Christians to pagan learning and especially 
to Greek philosophy had become more pronounced, 
united with Gregory of Nazianzus (325-390) to show 
that Greek literature is helpful in instruction both in 
principle and event, and that it leads to the higher 
life both by precept and by example. And yet — and 
it shows that Christianity was finally winning — St. 
Basil, in speaking of the education of children, sums 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 119 

up his final judgment thus: "The choice lies between 
two alternatives: a liberal education which you may 
get by sending your pupils to the public [pagan] 
schools, or the salvation of their souls, which you 
secure by sending them to the [Christian] monks. 
Which is to gain the day, science or the soul ? If you 
can unite both advantages, do so by all means; but 
if not, choose the most precious." * 

(5) St. Chrysostom (347-411), though not in con- 
demnation, it is true, yet with greater disparagement, 
tells us that he has long ago laid aside such follies on 
the ground that they are only child's play. 

Latin Fathers. — The Latin Fathers, unlike the Greek, 
were opposed almost from the first to pagan learning. 
The Roman mind, as we here recall, admired practical 
achievement and cared httle for philosophy, and the 
Latin Fathers, in their opposition to pagan culture, 
were simply the interpreters and mouthpiece of this 
Roman mind. Judaism with its ethical impulse, and 
Revelation with its emphasis on the future, appealed 
more powerfully to them than Hellenism with its in- 
tellectual subtleties and its dramatic ceremonies. We 
are not surprised, therefore, that the most represen- 
tative Fathers, in spite of the fact that all had been 
teachers and steeped in pagan culture, eventually 
discountenanced and even forbade such study among 
believers. 

(i) Tertullian (150-230), the earliest of the Latin 
Fathers, in his "Prescriptions against Heresies," ex- 
presses this attitude of the West very definitely: 
"What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? 
What concord is there between the Academy and the 
* Monroe's "History of Ekiucation," p. 240. 



120 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Church? . . . Away with all attempts to produce a 
mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic 
[Aristotelian] composition ! " 

(2) In St. Jerome (331-423), author of the "Vulgate," 
a Latin version of the Bible, this conflict between the 
Christian faith and classical learning became most 
clearly defined. While we know, from his habit of 
quoting the classical authors, that he found it hard to 
condemn, he nevertheless expresses his best judgment 
in the matter in the celebrated "Letter to Laeta," 
where he is in doubt whether such authors should be 
permitted at all. If so, their study should be "rather 
to judge them than to follow." 

(3) In St. Augustine (354-430), author of the famous 
"City of God," and voluminous writer on education, 
we see the same powerful attachment to pagan learning 
overpowered by better judgment, and his decision 
against it. He is considered personally responsible for 
the prohibition of philosophical and literary study 
made by the Council of Carthage, and even for the 
suppression of pagan schools (529 A. D.) by an edict 
of Justinian. 

Thus Christian education, though in some respects 
permanently modified and enriched, was left alone in 
the field for a while to work out its powerful impulse of 
otherworldHness. This blow to pagan learning, to- 
gether with the coming of the Teutons, ushered in the 
"Dark Ages." 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Geikie's "Life of Christ." 

3. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

4. Monroe's "Text-Book on Education." 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 121 

5. Davidson's "History of Education." 

6. Graves' "History of Education," vol. I. 

7. Graves' "Students' Text-Book." 

8. Duggan's "History of Education." 

QUESTIONS 

1. What long process of amalgamation of ideals was hardly 
yet at its height when Christ was born? 

2. Go into the details of Christ's education, giving proper 
credit to the various elements. Can we account for him wholly 
on human grounds? 

3. What human relations, so imperfectly understood even by 
the greatest minds among the ancients, did Christ explain com- 
pletely ? 

4. What recognition does the Christian ideal accord to the 
claims of individuality, the social whole, and God? 

5. What, according to this ideal, becomes the task of the 
Christian state? 

6. Explain the educational redemption which Christ brought 
to caste men, slaves, women, and children, going fully into de- 
tails. 

7. What was it in his method of teaching that distinguished 
him from all other teachers, and thus made him incomparable? 

8. Does psychology account completely for his marvellous 
insight, sympathy, and skill? Discuss in detail. 

9. What were some of the hindrances which made it difficult 
for the early Christians to work out the educational redemption 
to which they were entitled? 

10. Explain the difficulties of their poverty, ignorance, small 
number, lack of books, and the attitude of the Roman emperors, 
going fully into details. 

11. What was the "othcrworldliness," or asceticism, so con- 
spicuously the motive of early Christian education? 

12. Trace the origin, purpose, curriculum, details of method, 
and history of the catechumen schools. 

13. Describe the Alexandrian catechetical school — and others 
— going into the details of purpose, origin, organization, cur- 
riculum, attitude toward paganism, teachers, pupils, and his- 
tory. 



122 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

14. What were the Church Fathers? Describe their origin. 

15. What was the attitude of the Greek Fathers toward 
paganism from century to century? 

16. What was the attitude of the Latin Fathers toward pagan- 
ism from century to century? 



CHAPTER X 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 
(continued) 

MIDDLE AGES 

The fall of Rome (476 A. D.) following the suc- 
cessive attacks which the barbarians* under Alaric, 
Attila, and Genseric, together with other great leaders, 
delivered upon the empire already crumbling under 
corruptions from within, and the generally disturbed 
conditions of society which succeeded all these events, 
left the church — especially after Justinian had closed 
the pagan schools — the sole custodian of education for 
centuries. She fulfilled this mission with great credit 
to herself, notwithstanding the fact that, under the 
too powerful dominance of asceticism, or otherworld- 
liness, her development of education was, from many 
points of view, seriously one-sided. 

We shall attempt, in this chapter, to explain the 
course of events from the time when the church first 
assumed her trust to the time when, on account of her 
failure to recognize the right of individual judgment, 
and on other accounts, she had to undergo thorough 
reformation. The whole subject may be conveniently 
considered under the following general topics: The 
church schools; the educational dream of Charlemagne, 
the great friend of the church schools, and what came 
of his dream through feudalism; scholasticism; the 
educational facihties which the Crusades, fathered by 

* Myers' " General History." 
123 



124 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the church, produced; what the Mohammedans con- 
tributed to one of these results, namely, the univer- 
sities; the brethren of the "Common Life"; the rise 
of modern literature, and the revival of learning, which 
paved the way for the sixteenth-century reformation 
of the church. 

THE CHURCH SCHOOLS 

When through the decree of Justinian (529), closing 
pagan schools, the church became the sole custodian 
of education, her burden was almost greater than she 
could bear. In the interest of the controlling "other- 
worldly" impulse which, through the extreme corrup- 
tion of the Roman Empire, was becoming still more 
insistent, if anything, in the fifth and sixth centuries, 
the catechumen schools, preparing for church member- 
ship, and the cathedral schools (bishops' schools), pre- 
paring for the priesthood, had to be kept constantly in 
mind. But the great work of completely converting 
the Teuton hosts who had taken possession of the 
Roman Empire, and of welding the Christian world 
into a spiritual empire, like that of Rome, induced 
the church to grant the monopoly of education to 
that remarkable "otherworldly" organization known as 
"monasticism." 

MONASTICTSM 

Origin and Nature of Monasticism. — Paganism had 
emphasized the present above the future, and the body 
above the soul. The belief of the early Christians in 
the immediate nearness of the "second advent" re- 
versed the order of these interests, as has already been 
stated, so that presently, certainly before the close of 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 125 

the third century, choice spirits, especially among the 
clergy, renounced the world as completely as they 
could by withdrawing into deserts and forests to live 
a life of contemplation and bodily mortification as a 
higher preparation for the coming of the Lord. In 
time this deliberate self-isolation became an institu- 
tion of marvellous force, called "monasticism," from 
the Greek word iiovo';, meaning "alone." 

Spread. — Monasticism had its origin in Egypt, 
where it gained its earliest prominence through the 
celebrated St. Anthony, who began his life of self- 
isolation there in 305 A. D. He was a hermit, pure 
and simple, like many before and after him. As early 
as 330, Pachomius, probably because he recognized 
the self-defeating strain and selfishness of the hermit 
life, founded a "family" of brother hermits on an 
island in the Nile. In this community life of hermits 
the principle of self -isolation was not abandoned, it is 
true, but, by permitting association at meal-times-, 
prayers, and religious services, the strain was suffi- 
ciently modified to make it at least endurable. St. 
Basil introduced this "cenobite," or family, monasti- 
cism into Greece in 350, and Athanasius and Jerome 
into Rome a little before or a httle later, where it, in- 
stead of the hermit type, became the model for the 
whole Western world. For about two centuries each 
separate community was governed by rulers of its own 
invention, but always in harmony with the funda- 
mental ideals. In the year 529, the year in which, as 
we recall, Justinian closed the pagan schools, St. 
Benedict, a Roman patrician, as an escape from the 
scandals and corrupftion of Rome, founded the mon- 
astery of Monte Cassino, not far from Naples. He 



126 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

drew up a monastic constitution, consisting of seventy- 
three articles, in which he dealt in great detail with 
the organization of this monastery and its daily life. 
The code, or rule, of St. Benedict became the model 
for nearly all the monasteries of the West, and the 
groundwork for all succeeding monastic orders. 

Ideals. — All the aspirations of monasticism, revived 
remnants of Oriental quietism and Greek philosophies, 
as they would appear to be — revived by new concepts 
derived from scriptural interpretations — are sharply 
summed up into three vows which the monks were re- 
quired to take; namely, those of poverty, chastity, 
and obedience. The great problem of reconciling the 
claims of the individual with those of the social whole, 
so conspicuous and pressing both in Oriental and 
Graeco-Roman life, are evidently all merged into the 
superior claims of God on the soul and the supreme 
need of the soul to be at peace with God — a mental 
attitude which certain injunctions of the Great Teacher 
himself seemed to justify. In the first vow, accord- 
ingly, the monk renounced all such material interests 
as might hamper the soul in her progress toward Chris- 
tian holiness; in the second, all those intimate social 
relations of marriage and family life which tend to 
rob God in Christ of any love; and in the third, all 
those relations of citizenship which hamper the church 
in her world-wide mission of salvation. It will be 
recognized at once that these ideals, antisocial as they 
are in outward aspect, are really a great guarantee 
that the church shall not lack workers and teachers 
and preachers and missionaries. In his forty-eighth 
article St. Benedict orders that at least seven hours of 
each day be devoted to manual labor, and at least 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 127 

two hours to sacred reading. While the requirement 
of manual labor furnished the ignorant population of 
Europe with expert agriculturists and craftsmen, the 
requirement of sacred reading made the monasteries 
not only the publishing-house and library of the Middle 
Ages, but also the centre of literary activity and the 
great "ready- to-hand" educational agency of the 
church. 

The Monastic Schools. — It is, however, with the 
distinctly educational results that we must here be 
concerned first of all. If those who joined the order 
were to read the Holy Scriptures, the Church Fathers, 
and the church missal, they must, of course, be taught 
reading, and, in the absence of printed books, writing 
must be taught so that the monks might take part in 
the copying of manuscripts. ''Singing" was taught 
for the sake of religious services, and "reckoning" to 
calculate the church days. 

The Seven Liberal Arts. — In time the rudiments of 
"the seven Hberal arts" of the Greeks, i. e., grammar, 
rhetoric, dialectic (logic), and arithmetic, geometry, 
astronomy, and music — later divided into the "triv- 
ium" and the "quadrivium" — became the regular 
curriculum. The names do not express the content of 
the several subjects, each one growing gradually from 
rudiments to a body of well-organized knowledge. 
Grammar included not only reading and writing, but 
literature, sometimes extended in the better schools, 
even to Vergil and other pagan authors. Rhetoric in 
time came to include history and law. Dialectic (logic) 
grew from simple Aristotelian statements into scien- 
tific reasoning and metaphysics. Arithmetic, until 
the Arabic notation became available, amounted to 



128 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

little more than simple calculations, but later grew 
to larger proportions. Geometry, based on Euclid, 
came to include geography and surveying. Astron- 
omy developed from the rudiments to a systematized 
body of doctrine, and presently added physics. Music 
rose from simple psalmody into organized theory, the 
celebrated Boethius becoming the recognized authority. 

At first, of course, only the rudiments of each of the 
seven arts — called "liberal" because they were sup- 
posed to cover the whole range of possible subjects — ■ 
were studied, and the importance of each art depended 
upon the needs of the times, grammar and rhetoric 
leading, as long as a knowledge of Latin was most es- 
sential, that is, the first half of the Middle Ages. 
When the influence of Saracenic learning, spreading 
from Spain, began to be felt in the monasteries, arith- 
metic, geometry, and astronomy grew in importance. 
The whole curriculum was always only a handmaid to 
the study of the Scriptures, and tolerated only as a 
means to this end. The course was preparatory to the 
more serious study of theology in the cathedral schools. 

Methods. — At first only youths whose object it was 
to join the order were received as students. Later this 
restriction was not so interpreted as to exclude other 
youths. The Franciscan convents began to provide 
at least an elementary education for girls. Although 
seven or eight was the age of admission, membership 
in the order was not permitted before eighteen. Latin, 
rather than the mother tongue, continued to be the 
language of the schools. The catechetical method of 
instruction was extensively employed, and the prac- 
tical difficulty of supplying the pupils with enough 
manuscripts, made dictation on the part of the teacher 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 120 

and copying on the part of the pupil the laborious 
necessity. Memorizing, rather than reasoning, was 
prevalent. We are not surprised, therefore, that the 
discipline was rather severe, extending even to the use 
of the rod. 

Parish Schools. — Under monasticism catechumenal 
education, as a preparation for church membership, 
became the function of the parish priests connected 
with the cathedral diocese, and of the bishops' clerks. 
Reading, writing, and singing were taught in connec- 
tion with the catechism, as before. In other words, 
monasticism failed to provide in any special way for 
primary church education. 

Cathedral Schools. — Under monasticism formal edu- 
cation for the priesthood gradually passed out of the 
jurisdiction of the cathedral bishop, and became the 
function of the monks. The divorce of theology from 
philosophy, which, in the West, " otherworldliness " 
had made almost complete in the sixth century, ex- 
cept in the Irish monastery of lona, and some other 
important places, like St. Gall in Switzerland and York 
in England, remained an institutional fact, and the 
course amounted to little more than an advanced 
monastic course. However, in St. Gall and York phi- 
losophy continued to flourish, together with Greek, 
long after the separation from Rome. 

Estimate. — That monasticism never recognized the 
cause of popular education; that it kept catechu- 
menal education at a low level; that, by extreme 
subordination of reason to faith, it degenerated rather 
than promoted theological training — all these defects, 
and others, must be regretfully admitted. 

On the other hand, monasticism as an educational 



130 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

agency, contributed powerfully to the Crusades, or 
Holy Wars; by gradual reversion from extreme "other- 
worldliness" to classic learning and philosophy, from 
both of which it had parted only under compulsion, 
it paved the way for scholasticism — and through both 
of these results, for the coming of the mediaeval uni- 
versities. 

CHARLEMAGNE 

It is practically the unanimous opinion of biog- 
raphers* that Charlemagne (Karl the Great) was 
great with an all-round greatness that could not be 
fairly predicated of any other great man in history. 

Ambition. — Charlemagne was born at Aix-la-Chapelle 
in 742 A. D., and died there in 814. He inherited the 
throne of his father, Pepin the Short, and his grand- 
father, Charles Martel; but the troublous age of which 
he was the product, unhappily failed to supply him 
with the education for which his capabilities fitted 
him, and this probably accounts for the hfelong efforts 
which he made to supplement his deficiencies. It be- 
came his mission to conquer the greater portion of 
western Europe to save the Christian civilization 
which his ancestors had founded in Frankland. In 
800, it will be remembered, Pope Leo III gave him 
the golden crown of the Holy Roman Empire, thus 
adding the tremendous power of the church to his own 
ambition. His ambition to conquer, unlike that of 
Alexander the Great before him, and of Napoleon after 
him, was not an end but only a means. His supreme 
ambition — his inspired dream, if we might call it that 
— was not political conquest, but the welding of a 
♦Lord's "Middle Ages." 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 131 

great Christian empire out of the unformed Teutonic 
barbarians who surrounded Frankland, and continued 
to threaten its safety until he at length could make 
himself their acknowledged master.* His astonishing 
wisdom, when we consider the times in which he lived, 
is evident in his selection of means to ends. He real- 
ized that the unity at which he aimed must needs be 
spiritual rather than outwardly forcible, and therefore 
based on unity of language, religion, and culture. 
And it was this unwavering attitude that made Charle- 
magne a great educator, as well as a great sovereign. 

Educational Activities. — Charlemagne promoted edu- 
cation in three ways; namely, through his palace 
school, his capitularies, or decrees, and his "missi 
dominici," or ofl&cial messengers. 

Palace School. — With the remnants of the palace i 
schools, which it appears his "fathers" had maintained, j 
to work upon as a foundation,! Charlemagne proceeded 
to establish an ideal court academy which should serve 
as a model and at the same time supply the necessary 
teaching forces for his kingdom. He accordingly sum- 
moned to his side the learned men of his times, begin- 
ning with his father's educational adviser, Peter of 
Pisa, and through him, Paul the Deacon, both of them 
prominent scholars of Lombardy. In 782 he called 
to his court the learned Anglo-Saxon scholar, Alcuin, 
the head of the famous cathedral school at York in 
England. This man, a little older than Charlemagne 
himself, and a conspicuous champion of St. Augus- 
tine's views, was to be his chief minister of education. 
He brought three teachers with him to Aix-la-Chapelle. 

* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 155. 
f Graves' "History of Education," vol. II. 



132 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Charlemagne himself was a pupil of Alcuin, and so 
were his queen, his three sons and two daughters, his 
sister, his son-in-law, and three cousins. Prominent 
ecclesiastics and scholars, including his biographer 
Einhard, also belonged to the school. 

With the younger learners Alcuin used the catecheti- 
cal method of instruction, but for older minds a more 
discursive method. Among the subjects taught were 
reading, writing, and singing, together with the Holy- 
Scriptures, the seven liberal arts, Latin, and a little 
Greek. Charlemagne himself acquired the power to 
converse fluently in Latin, and knew a little Greek. 
His pathetic effort to write a good hand is well known 
to our readers. He favored the education of girls, 
and took special pride in the training of his own daugh- 
ters. The fact that the school "moved" with the 
king in his "circuits" must have caused embarrassing 
interruptions, but the encouragement which Charle- 
magne gave to education by making all sorts of courtly 
favors and promotions depend upon application on 
the part of pupils, and upon efficiency in their attain- 
ments, is praiseworthy to a very high degree. 

Capitularies. — In 787 Charlemagne issued an edu- 
cational capitulary to the abbots of all the monasteries, 
of which the copy sent to the famous one at Fulda, 
in east Frankland, or northern Germany, has come 
down to us. In this capitulary he reproved the monks 
for their illiteracy and urged them to a better under- 
standing of letters and the Holy Scriptures. Two 
years later, in a still more urgent capitulary addressed 
to the abbots and bishops, he outhned a definite cur- 
riculum for the monastic and cathedral schools, not 
forgetting even the parish schools, and specifying the 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 133 

kind of teaching on which he would insist. Much as 
he revered the church, as we see in all his relations with 
the pope, he did not hesitate to make the monks obey 
orders, and, in addition to the request that the priests 
preach oftener in the language of the people, he re- 
quired them to give a good deal of time to teaching. 

Official Messengers. — Charlemagne recognized that 
unless decrees are enforced they may not bring results, 
and so he appointed messengers (missi dominici), who 
should visit, observe, and report to him, not only what 
they found in the frontier governments which he had 
established, but especially also in the schools. There 
is evidence enough that he carried out these plans, for 
there was an immediate and decided quickening In all ,j 
the existing educational institutions and an effective v 
addition of new facilities. 

Influence. — Charlemagne's spiritual successors in the 
educational reforms which he undertook carried out 
his noble ambitions, even after his death, and, in some 
respects, surpassed all his dreams. 

Alcuin. — In 796 Charlemagne permitted Alcuin to 
withdraw from the active headship of the palace school 
and to become the abbot of the monastery of St. 
Martin at Tours, the oldest and wealthiest in Frank- 
land. Here he established a model monastic school, 
wrote books, and produced disciples who attained to 
prominent places everywhere in Europe. One of 
these was Rabanus Maurus (776-856), the progressive 
and successful head of the monastic school at Fulda. 
Probably the greatest successor of Alcuin was Johannes 
Scotus Erigena (810-876), the Irish scholar, who as 
head of the Frankish palace school became the fore- 
runner of scholasticism. 



134 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Among the far-reaching results of Charlemagne's 
reforms, in spite of the political chaos that followed 
his death, was the work which Alfred the Great (871- 
901) undertook to do in England, where his translations 
of the classics and his ardent imitation of Charlemagne's 
educational establishments promoted Christian civili- 
zation and political efficiency to a wonderful degree. 

THE SARACENS 

It was through the Saracens, the Arabian followers 
of Mohammed, as- well as through the educational suc- 
cessors of Charlemagne, that Graeco-Roman culture, 
ostracized from western Europe, again became affili- 
ated with Christianity. 

Mohammed's "Crescent." — In 570 A. D. there was 
born at Mecca an Arab who, through the impulse 
which he imparted to his followers, threatened for 
nearly a thousand years to submerge Christianity. 
This unique man was Mohammed. Given by nature 
to contemplation, he had, as a young man, traveUing 
in Arabia and Syria, become profoundly affected by 
Jewish and Christian ideas, commingled with a vast 
mass of nondescript accretions. He had noticed * 
the power of the "book" among these people, and 
became deeply convinced that what his own war- 
racked country needed most for its peace was the uni- 
fying power of a lord and a book. And to this task 
this strange man, now forty years old, and unable to 
read or write, as his biographers believe, but urged by 
inner persuasion, set himself. The result was the 
Koran, an astonishing mixture of Jewish, Christian, 
and Arabian elements, with the Jewish elements 

* Davidson, p. 135. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 135 

greatly predominating. The book did not take full 
form until some time after his death. From his exile 
and flight to Medina in 622 — the "hegira" as it is 
known — he returned, and before he died, in 632, he 
had induced all Arabia, by force of arms, to accept the 
Koran. His successors, the "caliphs," made them- 
selves master of Persia, India, and Syria, and then, in 
their effort to carry this same Koran into Europe, 
which they approached from the side of Constanti- 
nople and northern Africa, they produced the "cres- 
cent empire," with its eastern horn at Constantinople 
and the western at Tours, France, where Charles Mar- 
tel stopped their further progress, 732 A. D. 

Educational Activities of the Saracens.— As long as 
the Koran, in the course of its conquest, came in con- 
tact only with the unreflecting, unphilosophic Arabs, 
"it needed no support from learning and called for 
no special education." Its contents could be communi- 
cated by word of mouth and committed to memory; 
but when it reached Syria, Persia, India, and Egypt, 
it faced a new problem. In Syria, for example, Hellen- 
ized by catechetical schools like that of Alexandria, 
and others founded at Nisibis, Antioch, and elsewhere, 
the Koran found it exceedingly difficult to win con- 
verts; and this difficulty was so enlarged by the Nes- 
torians who, expelled from the Roman church by the 
Council of Ephesus (431 A. D.) on account of Ari- 
anism, had also sought new fields of labor in Syria, that 
it became absolutely necessary for the Koran to garb 
itself in Hellenism in order to win the Eastern world 
extensively. The educational results were marvellous. 

In Arabia. — Through the impulse of Hellenism thus 
allied with Mohammedanism, Greek science, medicine, 



136 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and philosophy were given to the crescent empire 
first in Syriac and then in the Arab language. The 
most celebrated Arab writer on mathematics, medi- 
cine, and philosophy was Avicenna (980-1037). From 
the Hindus — not only from the Syrians — the Arabs 
learned not only a system of notation, but also higher 
mathematics, astronomy, etc. Schools and libraries 
sprang up in large cities, and literature flourished. 
While Europe, except on the east and among the Irish, 
lay in darkness, the "crescent" lay in Hght. In the 
days of Haroun al Raschid, a contemporary and corre- 
spondent of Charlemagne, Bagdad and other Arabian 
cities — if we may trust such a book as the "Arabian 
Nights" as a true reflection — must have fairly revelled 
in physical and mental glory. 

In Spain. — The orthodox Arabs, however, had little 
patience with this Hellenization of Mohammedanism, 
and its uncomfortable devotees betook themselves 
(1050 A. D.) to Spain, where they became known as 
"Moors," and by the twelfth century produced a 
brilliant revival of learning in such cities as Cordova, 
Toledo, Granada, and Salamanca. In these institu- 
tions were taught mathematics, science, law, philosophy, 
and letters. Among the famous Moorish thinkers 
was Averroes (11 26-1 198), the greatest commentator 
of Aristotle that appeared from the fall of Rome to 
the Renaissance. His commentaries, translated into 
Latin, became a special authority among schoolmen, 
and helped to shape such distinguished scholars as 
Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. In other 
words, Aristotelian Hellenism, as already noted, put 
Christian orthodoxy in Europe on the defensive, and 
thus transformed Roman theology into "scholasticism." 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 137 



SCHOLASTICISM 



The new impulse which Charlemagne had given to 
education was supplemented from the ninth to the 
fourteenth century by a revolt of reason from authority 
in religion, and this revolt has been called "scholas- 
ticism" from the Latin word "scholasticus," or school- 
man, thus calling attention to its origin in the mo- 
nastic and cathedral schools. 

Origin. — At least three influences contributed to 
the rise of mediaeval scholasticism, namely, Moham- 
medanism, recovery from "adventism," and the 
Crusades. 

History. — When, in the eighth century, Mohamme- 
danism came into Spain to stay, Christendom soon 
began to find it necessary to defend such doctrines as 
the Trinity and the Incarnation. This awakening, 
having for its purpose the vanquishing of heresy, led 
to a systematic restatement of the fundamentals of the- 
ology, and, through such scholars as Johannes Scotus 
Erigena, ushered in the great demands of reason on 
faith, especially the Augustinian type of faith, based 
so absolutely on authority. But monasticism, for- 
tressed in the otherworldliness of early adventism, sur- 
rendered to reason only by degrees, and with stubborn 
unwillingness. 

It was only when Europe began to recover from the 
chronic panic of adventism, and from the unsettHng 
fear of invasion by the Norsemen, that, about the be- 
ginning of the twelfth century, learning once more 
dared to return somewhat unhampered to "man and 
nature," and thus to the claims of reason in rehgion. 
Nevertheless, it continued to be the aim of the earher 



138 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

schoolmen, as with Anselm (1033-1109), of the Can- 
terbury Cathedral, to show that the accepted doctrines 
of Christianity were really consistent with each other 
and in harmony with reason. Anselm held that faith 
must precede reason, and that when reason cannot 
measure the heights and depths of revelation it must 
desist from effort. Abelard (1079-1142), the brilliant 
Frenchman, whose romance with Heloise lends ever- 
lasting charm to his name, and the fame of whose lec- 
tures have never ceased to attract the learned world, 
''declared that the only justification of a doctrine is 
its reasonableness, and that reason must precede 
faith." 

Due to more intimate contact of the schoolmen with 
Saracenic, or Moorish, Hellenism in Spain, and es- 
pecially to the recovery of the original works of Aris- 
totle by Venetian crusaders who captured Constanti- 
nople, the conflict between the two views reached its 
greatest height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
through such past masters in thinking as Thomas 
Aquinas (1225-1274), Duns Scotus (1274-1308), and 
William of Occam (1280-1347). In these contentions 
orthodoxy at first repudiated Aristotle and his works, 
but, finding it impossible to overcome the Greek mas- 
ter, adopted him bodily, and thus gave final shape to 
scholasticism, or logical theology. Thomas Aquinas, 
the "angelic doctor," an Italian theologian of the 
Dominican order, whose followers were called ''Thom- 
ists," exalted reason in rehgion, and gave to the Roman 
church a system of theology which still continues in 
authority. Duns Scotus, a Scotch Franciscan, sur- 
named the ''subtle doctor," exalted the will, and thus 
reduced theology to its practical implications. William 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 139 

of Occam, an English philosopher, surnamed the ''in- 
vincible doctor," went a step farther by asserting that 
theological doctrines were, strictly speaking, not mat- 
ters of reason, but of revelation and faith. This posi- 
tion, emancipating theology from philosophy, began 
to be accepted more and more, and thus virtually de- 
stroyed scholasticism. 

Method.— In the history of education we are prob- 
ably more interested in the method of scholasticism 
than in its mental attitudes toward Christianity. As 
a method scholasticism was a logical study of theology, 
and Aristotle's method of analytic deduction the form 
to which all statements and arguments had to be re- 
duced. It was the debates to which such a process 
gave rise in the cathedral schools, and later, in the 
universities, that divided the schoolmen into the 
"Thomists" and "Scotists," and that gave the whole 
intellectual world such a reviving impetus. 

Influence. — The first effects of this debating system, 
in its exaltation of logic, had the tendency of reducing 
the orthodox curriculum of the monastic and cathedral 
schools to dry formulas, from which, however, the uni- 
versities recovered after the Crusades. And it is cer- 
tainly true that the dogmatism and subtleties and ab- 
stract intricacies in which the schoolmen indulged 
was not a preparation for life and religion. Never- 
theless, as a little reflection will show, even such an 
argument as that of Thomas Aquinas, about the num- 
ber of angels that can stand on the point of a needle, 
shows that at heart the great purpose of all such in- 
tellectual fencing was *'to present the nature of the 
infinite in concrete form." All in all, scholasticism 
served the world best by its dissolution, thus granting 



140 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to theology and philosophy spheres of their own, with- 
out denying the function of either, while the direct and 
more immediate results were its contributions to the 
universities and to the Renaissance of the fifteenth 
century. 

FEUDALISM 

The adverse efTects of feudalism on education during 
the darkness of the early Middle Ages, of which dark- 
ness indeed it was a potent cause, and the "new day" 
which, allied with the church, feudahsm helped to 
produce through the Crusades, makes at least a brief 
explanation of its origin and course of development 
necessary in the history of education. 

Origin. — While the Teuton warriors who conquered 
Rome were individually proud and independent, they 
were also loyal to their chieftains. These were the con- 
spicuous traits of native Teuton character. The rela- 
tion to which attention has just been called is seen to 
great advantage in the division which these chieftains 
made of conquered Europe among their loyal retain- 
ers; for, while the chieftain thus surrendered parts of 
his domains, he could in turn depend upon the holders 
in his wars. In the course of centuries these social 
relations included even persons and institutions whose 
tenure of land did not depend directly upon service, 
but who, to secure protection needed in the many wars 
between the castled chieftains, attached themselves 
voluntarily to some powerful lord, and then it became 
necessary to define with severe nicety the intricate 
multitude of higher and lower relations. Thus arose 
and grew the feudal system of the Middle Ages. 

It was the complication of wars and the coincident 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 141 

building of castle fortresses that succeeded the im- 
mediate break-up of Charlemagne's empire, through 
the treaty of Verdun, in 843, and the subsequent divi- 
sion of Europe into feudal estates, that shattered the 
educational dream of Charlemagne, and that sub- 
merged all educational interests more or less up to the 
time of the Crusades. 

The feudal lords generally recognized the popes as 
spiritual overlords, and the chapels which these lords 
built in close connection with the castles became in 
time the great cathedrals. 

The esteem in which the Teutons held woman, and 
for which Tacitus praised them to shame the Romans, 
became the ready ally of religious veneration, and thus 
in time the higher aspirations of feudalism were gath- 
ered up in three ideals, namely, "religion, honor, and 
gallantry." 

Chivalry. — This Teutonic idealism passed through 
two stages, which have been called the ''heroic age" 
and the "age of courtesy." In the former stage re- 
ligion was the dominant note; in the latter, gallantry. 
The refinements of feudalism of this second period 
have been distinguished from the earlier coarseness by 
the term "chivalry," an abstract name derived from 
the French word "cheval," meaning horse, because 
the lords fought on horseback. Probably the close 
alliance of the church and the lords in the joint under- 
taking of the Crusades, or Holy Wars, was the cause 
of transition from the former to the latter stage of 
feudalism. 

The Crusades. — It was, of course, the first of the 
three ideals, namely, the religious impulse, that pro- 
duced the Crusades. When the Turks, who had 



142 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

wrested captured Jerusalem from the Arabs, insulted 
European pilgrims who, for reasons of piety, or pen- 
ance, came to visit the Holy Sepulchre, bitter resent- 
ment on the part of the church allied itself with the 
dramatic opportunity for penance on the part of the 
lord and people ahke, and thus in 1096 began the fate- 
ful expeditions — seven or eight of them — which were 
destined to cover Europe with sorrow and shame for 
several centuries, but which contributed to education 
in at least three ways: first, by adjusting palace schools 
to the quickened ideals of feudalism, or chivalry; 
second, by producing commerce, and thus the burgher 
schools, and third, by promoting scholasticism and 
Saracenic learning, and thus the universities. 

THE KNIGHT SCHOOLS 

The emphasis into which the Crusades quickened all 
the ideals of feudalism, as already noted, produced the 
knight schools. The palace schools, with their crudely 
organized courses, became the simple model upon the 
basis of which education was adjusted to the special 
needs of the times. Thus arose three well-defined 
periods in the education of a knight, namely, the 
home period, the "early teens," and the "later teens." 

Home. — Up to the age of seven the boy remained 
at home, and his health, religion, and morals were 
carefully supervised by his natural guardians. Among 
the virtues specially cultivated were obedience, re- 
spect to superiors, and common courtesy. 

A Page at the Castle. — At the age of seven every 
boy for whom chivalry made any provision was sent 
to the castle of some lord, usually the father's overlord. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 143 

to complete his education. Here he became a "page" 
to the lady of the castle, whom he served for seven 
years in various ways, and under whose special super- 
vision he learned reading, writing, singing, dancing, 
and courtesy, and also how to write verses, play the 
pipe, play chess, etc. In his outdoor life he learned 
to box, wrestle, ride, swim, etc.; and, as a page, accom- 
panied the ladies when hunting or hawking. In short, 
while religion, honor, and gallantry were thus taught 
in the rudiments, gallantry was emphasized. 

As a Squire. — At the age of fourteen the page be- 
came a "squire." Henceforth he was still the lady's 
attendant, and continued to hunt, sing, play chess and 
the harp with her, but allegiance to his lord rose to 
greater emphasis. It became his duty to wait upon 
his lord at the table, to look after his armor, to attend 
him in the "tournaments," and in actual battle, or on 
the hunt; and, in the performance of these duties, 
he gradually mastered the art of war, especially how 
to ride, and fight in full armor with sword, spear, and 
battle-axe. Thus, while religion and gallantry were 
not sacrificed in this period, "honor" and its claims 
had to be emphasized. 

Knighthood. — At the age of twenty-one, unless lack 
of property prevented, the goal of knighthood was at- 
tained. After weeks of religious preparations, ending 
with a night of solitary waiting in the church, and the 
partaking of the holy sacrament at the altar in the 
morning, the young man received a priest's blessing. 
Then, taking the oath to defend the church, to respect 
the priesthood, to attack the wicked, to protect women 
and the poor, to preserve the country in tranquillity, 
and to shed his blood in behalf of his brethren, he 



144 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was knighted, and rode forth into the world to prove 
his worth. 

Women. — Chivalry, contrary to the ideals of mo- 
nasticism, exalted woman. Her education, except in 
physical and military aspects, resembled that of her 
brothers. Usually, to a knowledge of household duties, 
and the ordinary course in reading, writing, singing, 
and dancing, was added some training in sewing, weav- 
ing, embroidery, and occasionally Latin and "letters." 

Influence. — Chivalry had little use for monkish aus- 
terity, and often failed in its ideals of honor and gal- 
lantry. Nevertheless, it was a real protest of right 
against might, it emphasized the sacredness of the 
oath, and paved the way for modern chivalry, or polite- 
ness. It called attention to the present Ufe, which 
had suffered so much from the otherworldliness of 
monk and nun. 

In the ballads and lyrics that were sung, and the 
tales that were told, during the long winter nights in 
the castle hall, we have the rise of modern literature, 
for the "troubadours" of France and the "minnesing- 
ers" of Germany were devoted to the mother tongue. 

Then, too, the ideals of obedience and service modi- 
fied the extreme individualism of the Teuton, which, 
as a solution of the problem of adjusting the claims of 
the individual to the social whole, was as necessary as 
the modification of excessive state control among the 
ancients.* 

THE BURGHER SCHOOLS 



s- 



/ Inasmuch as the church continued to purchase a 
P variety of utilities, and the nobles such luxuries as 

* Myers' " General History," p. 428. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 145 

pleased their love of barbaric splendor, commerce was 
never all driven from western Europe, but the towns 
and cities which the Romans had left in their wake, 
except those of France and Italy, had been practically 
all swept away by the Teutonic occupation of Roman 
Europe. In their place had sprung up the settlements 
of the feudal lords and their retainers, isolated com- 
munities whose centre was the castle and round about 
which grew up a village and people supplying the sim- 
ple needs of life by their own energies and holding aloof 
from the rest of the world. This remained the condi- 
tion of things up to the time of the Crusades, and far 
within the twelfth century. 

The Crusades Revived Commerce. — The Italian 
cities, notably Venice and Genoa, were called upon to 
furnish the ships and transports to convey Crusaders, 
thus establishing routes of connection between the 
East and Europe, and revealing to Europe the wealth 
and luxury of the East. Trade sprang up inevitably, 
for the West found it necessary to produce what the 
East would accept in exchange. And presently the 
West began to manufacture at least some of the articles 
of luxury until then imported from the East. This in 
turn produced an exchange of articles all over Europe, 
and then the media of exchange, together with credits. 

Growth of Cities. — As a result new towns and cities 
began to spring up all over Europe, centres of indus- 
tries and commerce, and many of them became im- 
mensely rich. The serfs, in their turn, soon discovered 
that the lords needed money, and that in lieu of it 
they could escape the more direct service to which 
they had been bound by the feudal system in its 
earlier development. Serfdom thus gave way to a 



146 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

large "burgher" class — a city folk with whom the 
lords found it necessary to treat for favor, by granting 
the cities charters of self-government, together with 
rich concessions to the merchant class and the various 
crafts. 

Educational Results. — The time thus came, before 
the close of the thirteenth century, when the cities could 
; vie with the church, not only in comfort and luxury, 
\/ but also in the educational facilities which they offered 
as a necessary preparation for the city life. Apart 
from several nondescript efforts and the wandering 
adventurers who went about from town to town ad- 
vertising themselves as teachers, because the demand 
for schools was greater than the supply, there were 
at least three well-defined species of burgher schiools: 
the "guild" schools, the chantry or parish schools, 
and the "writing" or burgher schools proper, and into 
which all the others were finally merged. 

Guild Schools. — In order to protect themselves against 
unfair encroachments, and overproduction, the vari- 
ous crafts, such as the shoemakers, the silversmiths, the 
tailors, and the merchant classes, arranged for appren- 
ticeships covering years of service within the house and 
home of a master, and followed by tests leading to 
journeymanship and then to mastership. Only those 
on the governing board of a guild were allowed to have 
more than one apprentice. Although the service was 
exacting, the rights of the apprentice were usually 
safeguarded with much punctiliousness, often including 
the rudiments of an education in reading, writing, and 
reckoning. Among the merchant guilds, and some- 
times among the crafts, geography, history, book- 
keeping, and even grammar, were not uncommon as 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 147 

parts of the course. Sometimes Latin and "letters" 
were added, as in the celebrated cases of the Merchant 
Taylors' School in London, or the equally famous 
grammar-school at Stratford-on-Avon, England, where 
Shakespeare learned "a. little Latin and less Greek." 
These schools, like the chantry schools, now to be de- 
scribed, were gradually merged into the town, or 
burgher, organizations. 

Chantry Schools. — The custom sprang up among 
well-to-do people to provide by will for the saying, or 
chanting, of masses for the dead belonging to their 
family. Inasmuch as this service, to which a priest 
was called, would not occupy very much of his time, 
it soon became a part of the stipulations that the 
"chantry priest" devote some of his time to the educa- 
tion of the children of the family and of others in the 
parish. Sometimes two priests were called into such 
service, one to teach singing and the other to teach 
grammar, both of these studies to be connected with 
other rudiments of education. 

Burgher Schools Proper. — In the burgher schools 
proper, where reading, writing, reckoning, and such 
branches as geography, history, and bookkeeping were 
the main preparations for industrial and commercial Hfe, 
the teachers were not always priests, but the church 
continued for a long time to claim supervising powers, 
and the contests for such power were sometimes little 
less than violent. Where the municipal authorities 
gained the upper hand, the head teacher was employed 
by contract, and he in turn employed assistants. The 
latter were commonly very poorly paid, and poorly 
qualified for service. In the effort to improve their 
condition, these teachers seldom remained long at the 



148 raSTORY OF EDUCATION 

same place, and came to be known as "vagantes," or 
wanderers. In their journeys they were sometimes 
accompanied by pupils who, because of their habit of 
purloining fowls as parts of meals, became known as 
ABC shooters. The time for special buildings had not 
yet come, and the sessions of the burgher schools were 
held in churches, municipal buildings, or rented places. 

THE UNIVERSITIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

Institutions in which all the learning of the time was 
imparted, and which may therefore be fairly called 
universities, such as those of Athens, Constantinople, 
Alexandria, and Nisibis, came to an end through 
Christian supernaturalism and the inroad of the bar- 
barians before 800 A. D. Early in the twelfth century 
a similar fate, the result of orthodox fanaticism, over- 
took the universities which the Arabs had founded at 
Bagdad and elsewhere, and less than a century later 
those which the Moors had founded at Cordova, 
Toledo, and elsewhere in Spain.* 

Origin of the Mediaeval Universities. — In the mean- 
time Christian Europe had become acquainted with 
Saracenic learning through Christian students who at- 
tended the Moorish universities of Spain in large num- 
bers; through the Crusades, because they brought 
Europe into closer touch with Arabic culture, and thus 
greatly broadened the mental horizon; and through 
scholarly translations of Saracenic works, including the 
Koran, into Latin. When, in this way. Christian or- 
thodoxy began to be threatened because reason dared 
to ask faith questions, scholasticism arose, as before 
explained. In other words, reason and faith had to 
* Davidson's "History of Education," p. 166. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 149 

be reconciled if Christianity was to live. But reason, 
once unfettered as it thus came to be in the cathedral 
and monastic schools, and extensively among the youth 
of Christian Europe, became anxious to make inquiries 
on its own account. This spirit of inquiry, this desire 
to know, gave birth to the mediaeval universities, 
which were the forerunners of modern universities. 
In their first form the mediaeval universities consisted 
simply of teachers and students associated in the free 
pursuit of knowledge, and were not dependent in any 
way upon church or state for their existence, organiza- 
tion, or support. 

Earliest Mediaeval Universities. — The earliest me- 
diaeval universities owed their origin to distinctly local 
causes, as well as to the general causes just noticed, 
and developed in somewhat strict obedience to such 
local impulse. 

Salerno. — Salerno, near Naples, became the seat of 
the first mediaeval university. The place, on account 
of cUmate and mineral springs, had long been a popular 
health resort. Due to this fact, perhaps, the old 
Greek medical works survived there. Latin transla- 
tions of these in the eleventh century, together with 
original contributions, helped to make the place a 
centre of medicine. Other causes contributed to the 
reputation of Salerno, so that, although it was never a 
chartered university, Frederick II lent his powerful 
patronage to the promotion of its success. For some 
reasons, however, Salerno never became a model for 
other institutions, and gradually lost its prestige com- 
pletely. 

Bologna. — The cities of northern Italy had never 
allowed the knowledge of Roman civil law to die out 



150 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

completely. When the German emperors threatened 
to rob them of their independence, it became important 
to establish their claims on Roman edicts, charters, 
grants, etc. This necessity produced an enthusiastic 
revival in the study of law, and early in the twelfth 
century Bologna was becoming a special centre of this 
movement. The city now grew famous through the 
lectures of Irnerius, and the complete codification of 
the Justinian laws. 

Inspired by this scientific treatment of civil law, a 
monk of Bologna, Gratian by name, codified the edicts 
of Church Fathers, councils, popes, Christian emperors, 
thus furnishing the church with a complete and sys- 
tematic work on canon law. It was called Gratian's 
*' Decrees," and almost at once became the great author- 
ity. Thus Bologna had become the Mecca for law-stu- 
dents, who came in large numbers. In 1158, probably 
because the masters favored his claims, Frederick Bar- 
barossa chartered the institution as a university. It 
is estimated that by the opening of the thirteenth 
century there were at least five thousand students in 
attendance. To a long-established course in the lib- 
eral arts and law, medicine was added in 13 16 and 
theology in 1360. 

Paris. — The universities arose in mediaeval England, 
France, Germany, and elsewhere, as they did in Italy, 
but of all attempts north of the Alps that of Paris was 
first and by far the most famous. This university 
grew out of the cathedral school of Notre Dame, 
through the fame of its head, William of Champeaux, 
early in the twelfth century. His great successor, the 
brilliant Abelard, who lectured there on dialectic and 
theology between 1108 and 1139, drew thousands of 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 151 

students to Paris from all nations. Through his tal- 
ented pupil, Peter the Lombard, Abelard laid the 
foundations of what in 1180 was formally recognized 
by Louis VII as a university. In 1200, when law and 
medicine had been added to theology and the liberal 
arts, it was recognized by Philip Augustus. 

Rapid Growth. — New universities arose in several 
ways, sometimes as migrations from an older estab- 
lishment, as Oxford from Paris, sometimes as new 
foundations by church or state. In a general way the 
universities arising in southern Europe, as in Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, and France, took Bologna as a pat- 
tern, while northern Europe, as in England, Scotland, 
Sweden, Germany, and Denmark, took Paris as a 
pattern. The difference between the two t3^es of 
universities will be treated presently. By the close 
of the fourteenth century about eighty universities 
had sprung into existence. 

Privileges. — The chief reason for this rapid increase 
in the number of the mediaeval universities is to be 
found in the special privileges granted by emperors, 
kings, lords, and popes. These privileges extended not 
only to the masters and the students, but also to their 
attendants, of which there seems to have been a goodly 
number, especially in the case of the so-called "wan- 
dering" students. In the year 11 58, as already stated, 
Frederick Barbarossa granted charter privileges to the 
university of Bologna which became a sort of pattern 
for other monarchs and other universities. Accord- 
ing to these provisions persons connected with the uni- 
versities were generally exempted from military ser- 
vice and taxation. Offenders against the laws were 
granted trial by courts specially organized. In addi- 



152 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tion to these general provisions, the power to grant 
degrees was presently conferred upon the universities, 
and, when privileges granted by sovereigns were chal- 
lenged or denied by municipal authorities, the right 
to move was permitted. Such a migration was com- 
paratively simple, inasmuch as there was nothing to 
move except the masters and their students. Costly 
buildings, libraries, etc., had not yet come. 

License. — Under the stimulus of these protective 
privileges the number of students increased rapidly, 
more masters became necessary, and new foundations 
were fostered, but, on the other hand, license of all 
sorts was also fostered. The students — so the evi- 
dence shows — indulged in all sorts of vice, including 
drunkenness, gambling, and licentiousness. Students 
coming from different countries, or belonging to differ- 
ent classes, provoked each other into ugly quarrels. 
Fights between ''the town and the gown" were not 
uncommon. When this license produced the "wan- 
dering" students, scandalous conduct was the rule. 
Things became so serious presently that expulsion and 
even the revocation of university privileges were neces- 
sary. 

Organization. — The word university, as first used 
in connection with mediaeval education, did not mean 
an institution in which all the learning of the time was 
imparted, but rather an association of masters and 
students whose purpose was study. To this fact refer- 
ence has been made. When the number of students, 
due to the reputation of some master, or association 
of masters, reached large proportions in any seat of 
learning, the student body naturally grouped itself 
into "nations." At Bologna, where the students were 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 153 

usually mature men, they constituted the governing 
body, deciding not only who the masters should be, 
but also determining the fees, the beginning and the 
end of sessions, etc. This, as stated, became the pat- 
tern of organization for the universities of southern 
Europe. Each "nation" annually elected a represen- 
tative, or "counsellor," and to these counsellors as a 
body the general conduct of the student body was 
intrusted. 

At Paris, and in the universities which patterned 
after Paris, the student body consisted largely of 
younger men, and therefore the masters, constituting 
"faculties," became the governing body. Here the 
masters elected representatives, called "deans," in 
whom as a body the administration of ajffairs was 
vested. 

In course of time it became the custom in the 
mediaeval universities to administer the government 
through a joint body of "counsellors" and "deans," 
who in turn agreed upon a central head called "rector," 
or "chancellor." 

Courses of Study. — The fully developed mediaeval 
university offered courses in the liberal arts (philoso- 
phy), law, medicine, and theology, which divisions, 
with many modifications of content, have become the 
pattern for modern universities. The content of the 
courses offered by each faculty differed considerably 
in different constitutions, and to some degree, from 
time to time, even in the same institution. Aristotle 
continued to be the great authority in the liberal arts 
course, Hippocrates and Galen in medicine, Justinian's 
"Code" and Gratian's "Decrees" in law, and Peter the 
Lombard in theology. Such studies as history and 



154 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

modern languages found no place as yet, little atten- 
tion was paid to Roman classics, and almost none to 
Greek. 

Methods. — The great purpose of the mediaeval uni- 
versity was to train the student to acquire what ac- 
cepted authorities offered, and to debate successfully 
on any subject acquired. In order to accomplish the 
former purpose, the masters lectured in Latin on ac- 
cepted texts, adding as vast an array of other authori- 
ties, for and against, as possible, and supplementing 
the whole by opinions of their own. In the absence 
of printed books, and because even enough manu- 
scripts were difficult to supply, much repetition of the 
text and copious notes were necessary. 

In the accomplishment of the second purpose stu- 
dents were required to contend with each other in 
Latin, singly or in groups, in formal disputations, sub- 
ject to much rhetorical and logical regulation, and 
which in the latter Middle Ages degenerated into 
frivolous contentions for victory rather than for fact 
and truth. Authority, subtlety of argument, skill in 
debating amounting to a sort of intellectual fencing — 
these, rather than independent research and love for 
absolute truth, were the great ideals. 

Degrees. — After years of study, lasting from three 
to seven, the student might hope to win a ''degree." 
Different private and pubhc debates paved the way. 
Three degrees were possible, corresponding to the cus- 
tom of the "guilds," where the learner was first an 
apprentice, then a journeyman, and finally a master. 
So in the universities, the first or initial degree made 
the young man a "bachelor," or candidate; the next, 
which resulted from success in private debates, made 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 155 

him a "master"; and the last, following the public 
debate, made him a "doctor." In course of time the 
mastership and doctorate were conferred together, 
and admitted the graduate into the body of masters, 
or professors, and permitted him to compete with them 
in winning students for themselves. 

Influence. — While it will be readily admitted that 
the mediasval universities discouraged freedom both 
in course and method, it must also be granted, we 
think, that the process of acquisition made industry 
and certainty necessary, and that the debating process 
led to intellectual resourcefulness worthy of attain- 
ment. 

The institutional value of the mediseval universities 
can hardly be overestimated. They were a powerful 
protest against absolutism on the part of the church 
and the state; for, in the great quarrels between the 
two, they came to be the recognized courts of arbitra- 
tion. In short, they paved the way for the later more 
complete liberation of reason. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' " General History." 

2. Davidson's "History of Education." 

3. Graves' " History of Education," vol. I. 

4. Irving's " Mahomet and His Successors." 

5. Laurie's "Rise of the Universities." 

6. Guizot's "History of Civilization." 

7. Azarias' "Essays Educational." 

QUESTIONS 

1. How did this collision between Christianity and paganism 
end, and why? 

2. Compare the social and moral conditions of the world as 



156 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

it was before Christ's coming with what they had become 
through the otherworldliness of the first four centuries of Chris- 
tian education. 

3. How did the church become the sole custodian of educa- 
tion in the sixth century A. D. ? 

4. Why did the church commit the cause of education almost 
wholly to monasticism? 

5. Explain, by gathering up the contributing causes, what 
is meant by monasticism. 

6. How and through whom did monasticism rise in Egypt? 
Explain its spread into Greece, Italy, and western Europe. 

7. What vows gather up all the aspirations of monasticism? 
How did St. Benedict make the monasteries the great educational 
agency of the church? 

8. What were the seven liberal arts of the monastic schools ? 
Describe the growth of each in content, and their place in the 
curriculum. 

9. Who attended the monastic schools? Describe the 
methods of instruction, and the results. 

10. What were the parish schools? Describe their function, 
curriculum, and character. 

11. What were the cathedral schools? Why, with some 
famous exceptions, were they inferior to the Alexandrian cate- 
chetical school? 

12. What were the defects of monasticism as an educational 
agency? To what great movements did it contribute? 

13. Who was Charlemagne? Tell what causes contributed 
to make him the great champion of Christian civilization. 
What was his "dream"? 

14. Describe in detail the various ways in which Charlemagne 
promoted education. 

15. Describe the educational career of the great spiritual suc- 
cessors of Charlemagne. 

16. Who were the Saracens? Who was Mohammed? What 
was the origin of the Koran, and the "crescent" of the ca- 
liphs? 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 157 

17. How did it become necessary for the Koran to garb itself 
in Hellenism ? 

18. What did the Hellenized Saracens contribute to education 
in Arabia and in Spain? Explain in great detail. 

19. What was scholasticism? State the contributing causes 
that produced this revolt. 

20. Tell what you can of the great schoolmen Erigena, An- 
selm, Abelard, Aquinas, Scotus, Occam. 

21. Describe scholasticism as a "method," and its results. 

22. Describe the influence of scholasticism on various medi- 
aeval conditions. 

23. Give the origin and trace the complicating development 
of feudalism. What were its effects on education? 

24. What ideals gathered up the aspirations of feudalism? 
What was chivalry? 

25. What were the Crusades? Account for them, and state 
how they contributed to education. 

26. How did the Crusades produce the knight schools? De- 
scribe the education of a knight by periods. 

27. What notice did chivalry take of woman? Explain the 
vast services of chivalry. 

28. Why was "commerce" never wholly driven from western 
Europe? What was the fate of commerce when feudalism 
spread over Europe? 

29. How did the Crusades revive commerce, and how as a 
result did they produce cities? 

30. What were the guild schools, the chantry schools, and the 
burgher schools? Describe each of these in much detail. 

31. What became of Hellenic universities and later of Sara- 
cenic universities? 

32. Especially through what contributing causes may we ac- 
count for the rise of the mediaeval universities? Explain. 

$3,. Sketch the history of the three earliest mediaeval univer- 
sities. Go into the details. 

34. Describe how new universities arose rapidly all over 
mediaeval Europe. 



158 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

35. What privileges were conferred upon them? What were 
the results? 

36. Describe the earlier and final organization of tne mediaeval 
universities. 

37. Describe the courses, methods, degrees, and influence of 
the mediaeval universities, going into much detail. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE RENAISSANCE 

The repression and uniformity to which the human 
spirit had submitted for a thousand years, only under 
protest, became more and more unbearable until the 
mind at last burst through these fetters and attained 
to a very remarkable freedom of activity known as 
the "Renaissance" (rebirth). 

Causes. — A number of things conspired to bring 
about this movement. The defense which Christian 
orthodoxy had to make when Saracenic learning crept 
into the cathedral schools and the monasteries, and 
produced scholasticism, was probably the first dis- 
tinct summons to the new mental activity, and, through 
the recovery of Aristotle's works on physics, it grew 
to very large dimensions in the universities after the 
Crusades. 

The Crusades, producing chivalry, commerce, cities, 
wealth, and culture, also contributed powerfully to 
the same result, inasmuch as all these things made it 
necessary for the mind to emancipate itself from the 
narrow limits to which the prevailing otherworldliness 
and formal orthodoxy had enslaved it. 

Spirit of the Renaissance. — The men who were car- 
ried into the new-born freedom dared to look at the 
world around them — at nature — and literally revelled 
in its beauty. The joys of the present life in all its 
forms took complete possession. The body was no 

159 



160 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

longer looked upon as a handicap but as a gift. In- 
tellect dared to solve the problems which life and the 
world present,* and felt the consciousness of power. 
The familiar individualism of the Greek mind (see 
chapter on Greek education), wrapped up in self- 
conscious, self-expressive eestheticism, had reappeared 
in the world. Beauty in the Greek sense, with free 
individuality, had once more, regardless of results to 
the social whole, become objects of worship. 

Revival of Learning. — The choice coterie who, cov- 
ertly defying orthodoxy, had dared to read the Graeco- 
Roman literatures in the monasteries or in the courts, 
practically all through the Middle Ages, were of course 
the first to recognize a kinship of human interests. 
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, accord- 
ingly, the study of the ''classics" had become the 
great pursuit of the learned class. And because the 
Graeco-Roman literatures were believed to be the 
fullest and best description of all that is "human," it 
became the custom to call these writings the "humani- 
ties." For the same reason the enthusiastic study of 
the classics was called "humanism," and the students 
themselves "humanists." Humanism, however, did 
not confine itself simply to the study of the Graeco-Ro- 
man literatures, but, inspired by the precious models, 
succeeded in producing a literature of its own rivalling 
that of the best days of Rome and Athens. 

This humanism, which was only the literary phase 
of the Renaissance, was accompanied by an art re- 
vival equally enthusiastic and productive. Before the 
close of the fifteenth century Italy had produced such 
painters as Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, 

* Adams' " Civilization During the Middle Ages," p. 365. 



THE RENAISSANCE 161 

Andrea del Sarto, Titian, and others, while Spain had 
produced Velasquez, Flanders Rubens, and Holland 
Rembrandt. Sculpture was hardly behind painting in 
rapid productive energy. Progress and discovery had 
become the marks of the age. 

ITALY 

This exulting freedom of spirit, which was so char- 
acteristic of Graeco-Roman life at its best, and into 
which the world was now reborn, found its first great 
representatives in Italy. 

Special Causes. — There were three or four very 
special reasons for the early rebirth of learning in Italy. 
Nearness to the papacy had exposed it to the peril of 
familiarity and thus weakened its authority over the 
"intellectuals." The political strife between rival 
factions within cities, and rivalry between cities them- 
selves for commercial and poHtical supremacy, natu- 
rally sharpened the wits of men. For the sake of the 
prestige which association with "learning" would give 
them the various "city tyrants" patronized distin- 
guished humanists at the courts and encouraged them 
to found schools. The Grasco-Roman literatures, as 
before stated, had continued to have devotees in 
cathedral schools and monasteries. 

DANTE 

Dante (i 265-1321) was born and educated in Flor- 
ence. His teacher was a famous rhetorician and philos- 
opher, and Dante loved him. He was drawn into the 
political turmoil of the age and banished. 



/ 



162 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

We are not surprised, therefore, that he gave the 
world his "Inferno," the "Divine Comedy," which has 
made his name immortal. While the thought of the 
"Inferno" is mediaeval, he gave the ItaHan language 
a literary dignity which it has never lost, and thus he 
became the great Renaissance prophet, the forerunner 
of freedom in beauty of style. 

PETRARCH 

The first great humanist was Petrarch (1304-13 74). 
His father was an eminent jurist, banished in the same 
year as Dante. The family removed to Avignon, 
France, and Petrarch had all the educational advan- 
tages of the splendid institution of Montpelier. His 
father wanted the boy to devote his life to law, but 
Petrarch preferred a life of letters, and became the 
first great humanistic poet. 

The great Renan calls Petrarch "the first modern 
man." Adams says that Petrarch was the very em- 
bodiment of the Renaissance spirit.* He emphasized 
the present life, with its beauty and its joys, and thus 
turned his back on mediaeval otherworldhness. He 
appealed with all the vigor of new-born individualism 
from tradition and authority to direct observation and 
aggressive reason. Even Aristotle suffered at Pe- 
trarch's hands, and his impatience with the narrow- 
ness and conservatism of the universities is almost 
heroic. 

Carried away by this felt kinship with the ancients 
he spent the greater part of his life in restoring ancient 
culture. He did this by collecting and repairing Latin 

* "Civilization of the Middle Ages," p. 375. 



THE RENAISSANCE 163 

manuscripts, by productions of his own full of the 
classic spirit, and by his untiring efforts to inspire 
others with his own enthusiasm, thus producing famous 
disciples. 

BOCCACCIO 

One of these disciples was Boccaccio (13 13-1375). 
As a young man Boccaccio had studied at Naples, and 
produced tales, romances, and poems that attracted 
much attention. His greatest work is the "Decam- 
eron" (ten-day book), filled with classical allusions and 
the spirit of the Renaissance. He had become an ad- 
mirer of Petrarch, but met him for the first time in 
1350 when the latter came on a brief visit to Florence, 
where Boccaccio was then lecturing on Dante, and pur- 
suing his literary labors. 

Boccaccio, like Petrarch, served the Renaissance by 
his untiring efforts to collect, preserve, and copy ancient 
manuscripts, and by producing numerous works highly 
classical in spirit. 

CHRYSOLORAS 

The Greek language had almost disappeared from 
the Middle Ages, and little was done for it even after 
Petrarch's advent. Petrarch had studied Greek, but 
knew so Httle of it that when a friend sent him" Homer " 
as a gift, he said: "Thy Homer is dumb to me, while I 
most certainly am deaf to him. Nevertheless, I am 
delighted at the very sight of him." He persuaded 
Boccaccio to translate Homer, and encouraged the 
study of Greek authors. Thus it was that enthusiastic 
humanists frequently visited Greece and Constanti- 
nople to secure copies of Greek authors. 



164 mSTORY OF EDUCATION 

Chrysoloras. — Greek scholars had gradually begun 
to come into Italy. In 1396 Manuel Chrysoloras (1350- 
141 5), sent to Venice by the Eastern emperor to im- 
plore aid against the Turks, was invited to the pro- 
fessorship of Greek which through the influence of 
Boccaccio had been established at Florence. Young 
Italians, even in Venice, and now in Florence, Hterally 
besieged him in their eagerness to learn Greek. He 
remained in Italy sixteen years, making Florence the 
new seat of Greek learning, though he spent some of 
his time founding schools at Pavia, Venice, Milan, 
Padua, and Rome. Apart from his great work as a 
teacher, who produced famous disciples and in turn 
founded schools, his best contributions to the Renais- 
sance were a series of translations of Greek authors, 
and a work on Greek grammar which long remained 
the one available authority. Perhaps the most note- 
worthy disciple of Chrysoloras was "Vittorino da 
Feltre." 

VITTORINO DA FELTRE 

Vittorino (13 78-1446) took his degree at Padua, 
where he had become a fine Latin scholar, and re- 
mained to take a postgraduate course in mathematics 
under private masters. He became a teacher here, 
but after twenty years of hard work went to Venice to 
study Greek under a great master. 

On his return to Padua he began to teach in his own 
house. When he was forty-five years old, the Marquis 
of Mantua, who hoped to add lustre to his court, per- 
suaded Vittorino to become the court teacher. The 
marquis granted every wish, and gave him a suitable 
building called the "pleasure house." Vittorino and 



THE RENAISSANCE 165 

the princes who were his pupils lived in the school, 
but, at his request, the sons of his friends and other 
promising young men were received into the school. 

Departing somewhat from the defiant freedom of the 
earlier humanists, he aimed at a harmonious develop- 
ment of mind, body, and morals. He used as means 
to ends not only the Latin and Greek classics, but also 
the Church Fathers, and even the liberal arts, giving 
the arts large content. Outdoor life and games were 
encouraged as part of the curriculum. 

The scarcity of books compelled him to resort much 
to dictation as a method of teaching, but, due to his 
resourceful personaHty he produced very praiseworthy 
results, and became the model for other schools. 

Highest Points. — In the year 1453, when the cap- 
ture of Constantinople by the Turks drove the Greek 
scholars into exile, they were received with open arms 
into Italy, where such patrons as Nicholas V (1398- 
1455) and Leo X (1475-1521) made it possible to carry 
on the work of the Renaissance with an enthusiasm 
that amounted to abandonment. Nicholas V encour- 
aged the humanists to collect manuscripts and founded 
the Vatican library for their permanent storage, while 
Leo X (1513-1521) by and by encouraged artists like 
Michelangelo. 

Influence. — The court schools produced by Italian 
humanism, through their excellency in course and 
spirit, became competitors of the universities and at 
length compelled them to give a large place to the 
classical Hteratures of the Greeks and Romans. This 
was particularly true toward the close of the fifteenth 
century in Florence, Padua, Pavia, Milan, Ferrara, 
and Rome. 



166 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

While some of the Italians, conspicuous among them 
Vittorino, endeavored to use the ancient learning, in 
connection with the Christian writers, as means in 
moral education, and while others, like the learned 
itinerant philosopher Valla, for a short time a pupil 
of Vittorino, repudiated the church and her formal 
confessions openly, the great majority of the ''learned" 
class, including Nicholas V, pagan and sceptical as 
they had become, remained in outward connection 
with the church, and even attained to the highest 
places in the gift of the church. Probably the most 
extreme case of paganistic humanism among "church- 
men" was that of Peter Bembo (1470-1547), the liter- 
ary ruler at the briUiant court of Leo X, who, himself 
a pope, was still at heart what his father, Lorenzo the 
Magnificent, of the house of Medici, had been in his 
love for art, literature, and paganism, a veritable pagan. 

In its best representatives Italian humanism had 
risen to the highest purpose of complete human devel- 
opment, through a broad course in the study of the 
classics, supplemented by the Church Fathers, mathe- 
matics, science, music, and physical culture; and, by 
adaptation of work to the pupil's interest and ability, 
discipHne went so far as to banish the rod. Toward 
the close of the fifteenth century, however, Italian 
humanism degenerated into dead formalism, later 
called " Ciceronianism," consisting chiefly in the study 
of formal grammar and style instead of content and 
moral purpose. In short, Italian humanism defeated 
its own highest possibilities, which were, however, 
later realized more fully north of the Alps. 



THE RENAISSANCE 167 

NORTH OF THE ALPS 

The Renaissance did not expend all its force in Italy, 
but spread into France, Germany, England, and else- 
where, and was greatly modified. 

Causes. — Wandering scholars first carried the Re- 
naissance north of the Alps, thus paving the way for 
a larger coming when Gutenberg's invention of print- 
ing with movable type (1456) spread through Europe, 
making the multiplication of all texts rapid and con- 
tinuous. Toward the close of the fifteenth century, as 
the movement gained momentum, humanistic scholars 
were invited north in great numbers, and admirers of 
the new learning from the north became students at 
Florence and other Italian centres of humanism. 

FRANCE 

It was only natural that France, so long the centre 
of intellectual activity, should be interested. As early 
as 1458 a Greek professorship was estabhshed in the 
University of Paris. The Renaissance movement was 
greatly aided by the expedition which the French 
kings, Charles VIII and Louis XII, in the interest of 
hereditary claims, made into Italy in 1494 and 1498, 
respectively. Although these expeditions failed in 
their original purpose, they brought French thinkers 
into contact with the fascinating movement at such 
sources as Florence, Naples, Milan, and Rome. 

Owing to conservatism, the universities of France 
refused to follow the lead of Paris and opposed the 
new learning for some time, but the cause found an 
influential patron in the young king, Francis I (1515- 



168 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

1547). Through his support many prominent human- 
istic scholars appeared as champions of the classics. 
Among them were the celebrated authors and teachers 
Budaeus and Corderius. The new education was grad- 
ually swept into all the better schools of France. 

College of Guyenne. — One of the first important 
humanistic institutions was the college of Guyenne at 
Bordeaux, where Corderius and learned men like him 
were members of the faculty. 

Latin and religion were the chief studies in a ten- 
year secondary course. Greek, mathematics, and 
rhetoric were offered in the upper classes. A two-year 
course in philosophy, corresponding somewhat to the 
arts course in the universities, was added, and was 
devoted chiefly to Aristotle's works on logic and natural 
science. 

The school became very popular through the excel- 
lency of its methods of instruction. Grammar, for 
example, was approached through the mother tongue, 
"forms" were taught by the "development" method, 
disputations were used as stimuli, and discipline was 
mild. We may consider this school a fair sample of 
many. 

GERMANY 

/ Wandering teachers of the classics, visiting higher 
'institutions of learning in the German states, began to 
leave their impress wherever they went, but the earliest 
institutional effort to promote the Renaissance move- 
ment in Germany, the Netherlands, and perhaps France, 
was made by the "Brethren of the Common Life." 

The Brethren of the Common Life. — In the year 
1376, twenty years before Chrysoloras came to Flor- 



THE RENAISSANCE 169 

ence, Gerhart Groot had founded a brotherhood of 
priests at Deventer, Holland, known as the "Brethren 
of the Common Life," because it was to be their mis- 
sion to improve the masses by combating ignorance. 
In honor of their patron saint, Jerome, they have 
also been called Jeromites, or Hieronymians. These 
"brethren" took no monastic vows, and could with- 
draw from the order if they wished to do so, but they 
lived a very simple life, supporting themselves by copy- 
ing manuscripts, and devoting all other time at their 
command to teaching. 

They were specially devoted to the "common peo- 
ple," whom they taught free of charge. In some 
places they served as assistants in schools already in 
existence; in other places they founded new schools 
and undertook the whole management. As long as 
they pursued their original purpose they taught read- 
ing, writing, singing, and the mother tongue in connec- 
tion with the Scriptures, placing the emphasis upon 
the last two. Their services were very much in de- 
mand, and they became so popular that even before they 
undertook to champion humanism, they had estab- 
lished some forty-five "houses" closely linked together, 
and extending through the Netherlands, Germany, 
and France. 

When the influence of the Italian Renaissance be- 
gan to be felt in the northlands, the brethren became 
ardent advocates. They continued faithful to their 
original purpose in religion and morals, but added the 
classics and Hebrew, thus expanding into secondary 
schools. Rhetoric and theology often found a place 
in the higher classes, and occasionally the course cov- 
ered the work of the faculty of arts in a university. 



170 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

In a little more than a quarter of a century after they 
had taken the Renaissance into their heart, the Hier- 
onymians had established one hundred and fifty insti- 
tutions, furnishing teachers for other institutions all 
over Europe. 

Influence. — The work of the brethren deepened the 
impress of Renaissance wanderers, and thus helped to 
carry the new movement into the northern universities. 
Erfurt estabhshed a chair of classics in 1494, and was 
soon afterward completely reformed upon a humanistic 
basis. Other German universities, like Heidelberg, 
were similarly reformed. New universities, like Wit- 
tenberg in 1502, were humanistic from the beginning. 

Most of the northern Renaissance leaders were 
products of early training received in the schools of 
the brethren. Perhaps this was largely due to the 
wonderful personality and teaching power of Wessel 
(1420-1489), the first important champion of the new 
learning in the schools of the brethren. Among pupils 
who became famous humanists were Agricola, Reuch- 
lin, and Erasmus. 

AGRICOLA 

The first German humanist of great importance was 
Agricola (1443-1485). 

Agricola. — Although best known by this name, his 
real name was Hussman (farmer), but, obedient to the 
custom of the times, he had translated it into Latin. 

For a time he was a pupil of Thomas a Kempis, 
then he attended the University of Louvain for two 
years, and at Paris he came under the influence of 
Wessel, the great Hieronymian. Then he went to 
Italy to avail himself of the splendid opportunities of 



THE RENAISSANCE 171 

several famous institutions. When he returned to his 
own people he was the embodiment of all the best in- 
fluences of the Renaissance, and his reputation for 
scholarship and eloquence was so great that both 
courts and cities vied with each other to secure his 
services. 

Through the persuasions of his friend Dalberg, 
Bishop of Worms, he established himself at Heidel- 
berg, where he divided his time between private study- 
ing and public lecturing. His knowledge of Greek and 
Latin were marvellous. He understood French and 
Italian, and at the age of forty-one he began to study 
Hebrew in order that he might read the Old Testament. 

So great was his devotion to the cause of learning 
that he would not consent to accept a position as head 
of a school in Antwerp, even when the offer was pressed 
upon him. In declining the offer he gave the Antwerp 
school authorities a piece of advice which still lives, 
telling them in effect that a real teacher professionally 
trained is worth getting at any price, however high, 
and that no amount of training for anything else, even 
for theology or oratory, can be equivalent to such pro- 
fessional training. He served the cause of humanistic 
education notably through a treatise on "Rules of 
Study," in which he exhibits much pedagogical insight. 

REUCHLIN 

Reuchlin. — Like his friend Agricola, Reuchlin (1455- 
1522) caught the spirit of Wessel. He studied at 
Paris, where he went at the age of eighteen. He con- 
tinued his classical studies at Basel, where he took his 
degree. In 1498 he was sent to Rome on some im- 



172 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

portant mission, and while there devoted all his spare 
time to the study of Hebrew under a learned Jew, and 
to the collection of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. 

He served the cause of humanism as professor of 
Latin and Greek at Basel, and also of Hebrew at 
Tubingen, and for a short time at Heidelberg. He 
wrote a Latin lexicon, published fine editions of the 
Greek classics, and in 1506, in the interests of true 
Christianity, as he wrote to his friend Cardinal 
Hadrian, he published a Hebrew grammar and lexicon, 
the first work of the kind in Germany. He was very 
proud of this achievement, calling it a "monument 
more enduring than bronze," and his friends Erasmus 
and Luther praised and admired these wonderful con- 
tributions to the cause of Christian theology. 

Controversy. — While at Heidelberg, Reuchlin was 
unfortunate enough to become involved in a bitter 
controversy that covered nine or ten years. In 15 10 
a baptized rabbi, Pfefferkorn by name, to pave the 
way for the conversion of his race, urged Emperor 
Maximilian to destroy all Hebrew books except the 
Bible. On account of his reputation for Hebrew 
scholarship the matter was now referred to Reuchlin, 
who promptly advised that only such books as were 
written against Christianity should be destroyed, and 
added that ''the best way to convert the Israelites 
would be to estabUsh two professors of the Hebrew 
language in each university, who should teach the 
theologians to read the Bible in Hebrew, and thus 
refute the Jewish doctors." This very reasonable ad- 
vice offended the Dominican friars of Cologne, and 
they attacked Reuchhn with great bitterness, and the 
controversy became general, until finally the pope, to 



THE RENAISSANCE 173 

whom the problem was referred, decided in favor of 
Reuchlin. The leading thinkers of the age, Erasmus 
among them, sided with Reuchlin and recognized the 
splendid service which this learned humanist had ren- 
dered religion and truth. He had, in fact, paved the 
way for Luther. 

ERASMUS 

The most brilliant humanist of the age was Erasmus 
(1467-1536), a Hollander. 

Erasmus. — Like Agricola and Reuchlin, Erasmus 
had caught the spirit of all that was best in the Re- 
naissance from the Hieronymians. Like the German 
Melanchthon after him, he was very precocious. 
Agricola, on a visit to Deventer, saw him there at the 
age of eight, and prophesied his future greatness. He 
lost his parents when still a youth, and his guardians, 
in order to get possession of his patrimony, persuaded 
him to become a monk of the Augustinian order, but 
finding that he was wholly out of sympathy with mo- 
nasticism, he refused to submit to the decisions of his 
guardians, and presently, to his great relief, was released 
from his vows by the Bishop of Cambrai, and sent to 
the University of Paris. Here, as he said, he gave up 
his "whole soul to Greek learning," the elements of 
which he had acquired by private study. He wanted 
to "buy Greek books," and then "some clothes," but 
because his allowance was small, he took pupils in 
Greek. In 1509, while still at Paris, he met some 
Greek students who induced him to visit Oxford. 
Here he became acquainted with Colet and More, and 
studied under Grocyn and Linacre. He was so de- 
lighted with the learning of his Oxford friends, especially 



174 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

with the scholarship of Linacre, that he concluded it 
was not necessary to go to Italy to study Greek, but 
presently, when poverty no longer pinched so hard, 
he undertook to visit the ancient libraries, meet men 
whom he admired, and pursue his favorite study of 
Greek at Venice, Florence, and other centres. 

In 1 510 Erasmus became the professor of divinity 
at Cambridge, where he also taught Greek. He helped 
Colet establish what later became the famous school 
of St. Paul's, London, and he undertook to found a 
college at Louvain, but, when the Reformation and its 
controversies began, he withdrew into learned retire- 
ment at Basel, the home of humanism and printing, 
and although he could not be persuaded, even by 
Luther, to speak for the Reformation, he contributed 
powerfully to its cause by means of his writings — all in 
Latin. 

By means of satires, with innocent titles, he exposed 
the terrible laxity of faith and morals in church and 
society, and thus aided the Reformation. In 1516 he 
published an edition of the New Testament, accom- 
panied by a Latin translation and notes, that gave 
learned Europe the gospel as it was preached by Christ 
and his apostles, thus serving the cause of the Reforma- 
tion directly through his expert knowledge of the Greek 
language. 

The man who had thus called attention to the real 
content, or thought, of the Scriptures, also called atten- 
tion to the content, or thought, of Cicero as a writer, 
emphasizing this content above style, no matter how 
inimitable and excellent the latter might be. He ad- 
vised the "Ciceronians," as his imitators were then 
beginning to be called, to correlate the study of "na- 



THE RENAISSANCE 175 

ture" and "history" with the study of the classics, 
as means to ends. 

He contributed valuable works on the various phases 
of general education, proposing courses of study that 
made for piety, learning, moral uplift, and good man- 
ners, teachers selected for their personal worth and 
professional fitness, methods of study whose merits 
have stood the test of later pedagogy, discipline based 
on love and common sense rather than on force, and 
the education of girls in wholesome and natural envi- 
ronment rather than in convents. Indeed, if the same 
subjects had not since then been treated in still fuller 
harmony with the dictates of modern psychology and 
Christian idealism, we should hardly find it necessary 
to look elsewhere than to Erasmus for our professional 
training as teachers. 

ENGLAND 

The earliest patron of humanism in England was 
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Through his efforts 
younger humanists were brought from Italy to trans- 
late the classics, and Italian masters who would not 
come north were remunerated for help rendered. He 
also managed to give Greek and Latin books and 
manuscripts to Oxford, where he himself had been a 
student. 

Oxford. — As a result of Humphrey's endeavors, 
Oxford students began to visit Italy by the middle of 
the fifteenth century, but near its close (1488) three 
Oxford men, Grocyn, Linacre, and Latimer, devoted 
friends, went to Florence to study Greek, and returned 
to England determined to introduce Greek in their 
homeland. How much this determination was due 



176 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to the religious ideas of Savonarola, the atmosphere 
of whose spirit filled Florence at the time, we do not 
know. 

Grocyn. — Grocyn (1442-15 19) was fortunate enough 
to become the first lecturer on Greek at Oxford, where 
he found Duke Humphrey's contribution of books 
most helpful. Grocyn also began to ally Greek with 
the study of the Bible and thus was a forerunner of the 
larger movement that resulted in the Reformation. 

Linacre. — Linacre (1460-15 24) who, like Grocyn, 
had given much attention to the classics, rhetoric, and 
logic, while in Italy, became interested in Aristotle, 
and thus concluded to take a course in natural science 
and medicine at Padua, where he also lectured. On 
his return to England he lectured on medicine at Ox- 
ford, but gave some of his time to teaching Latin and 
Greek, and helped Grocyn train Erasmus, More, and 
Colet. Erasmus, as noted, could not praise him enough. 

Cambridge. — Bishop Fisher, who had become Chan- 
cellor, encouraged Erasmus, professor of divinity 
(1510-1514), to lecture on Greek just as "a labor of 
love." In 1514 Sir John Cheke succeeded to a new 
professorship of Greek in the university. Like Grocyn 
at Oxford, he allied Greek with the interpretation of 
the New Testament, and was especially interested in 
Matthew's Gospel. 

Roger Ascham succeeded Cheke in 151 5, when the 
latter became tutor to Prince Edward. Four years 
later Ascham became tutor in Greek and Latin to 
Princess Elizabeth. In his *'Scholemaster," written 
to prove that the cruel discipline then prevalent could 
be cured by better teaching, Ascham offered the method 
of "double translation" in the study of the classics. 



THE RENAISSANCE 177 

According to this plan the student was to translate his 
Latin lesson into English, and an hour later back into 
Latin, which was then to be compared by the master 
with the original. 

Henry VIII, through the influence of More and 
Wolsey, became the first patron of humanism at the 
court. 

Probably the most far-reaching impulse was given 
to humanism in English, and thus to American educa- 
tion, by Dean Colet of St. Paul's Cathedral. The 
school which he established allied the classics with 
rehgion and morals, and became the type of similar 
schools into which the Reformation converted numer- 
ous monasteries, as well as of new foundations. 

Influence. — In the north, as we have seen, the 
Renaissance lost its extreme individualism and be- 
came the most active ally of religious reform and moral 
uplift, and thus contributed powerfully to the Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century. 

Unfortunately, as we shall discover, this northern 
humanism became as despotic in content and as me- 
chanical in method as scholasticism before it, and thus 
had to be reformed itself in course of time. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

3. Adams' "Civilization of the Middle Ages." 

4. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

5. Monroe's "Text-Book in the History of Education." 

6. Graves' "History of Education," vol. II. 

7. Parker's "History of Education." 

8. Reeves' "Petrarch." 

9. Mrs. Oliphant's "Dante." 

10. Leclerc's "Life of Erasmus." 



178 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

QUESTIONS 

1. What was the Renaissance? Explain its causes and spirit 
pretty fully. 

2. Distinguish humanism from its associated art revival. 

3. Explain the special causes of the revival of learning in 
Italy. 

4. Account for the "making" of Dante, Petrarch, and Boc- 
caccio, and then explain the contributions of each one to the 
cause of learning. 

5. In what favor was Greek held in the Middle Ages? How 
did it begin to come into favor? 

6. How did Chrysoloras become the great missionary of 
Greek humanism in Italy, and what did he accomplish? 

7. Who was Vittorino? Trace his career up .to the time 
when he was called to Maiitua. Account for his call, and de- 
scribe the purpose, courses, methods, and worth of his court 
school at Mantua. 

8. When did the ItaHan Renaissance reach its high tide? 
Explain fully. 

9. How did the Italian court schools leaven the universities 
with humanism? 

10. What were the relations between Italian humanism and 
Christian faith? Illustrate. 

11. From what high organic perfections to what mechanical 
leanness did Italian humanism finally sink ? 

12. Account for the spread of humanism north of the Alps. 

13. How early did Paris become interested in the Renaissance? 
Describe the services which French kings rendered to the cause. 

14. Describe the work and influence of the college of Guyenne. 

15. Account for the arrival of humanism in Germany. 

16. What was the origin of the "Brethren of the Common 
Life," and their work before they became the champions of 
humanism ? 

17. Describe the course which they offered afterward, together 
with their great success. What was their effect on the univer- 
sities of Germany ? What great leaders did they produce ? 

18. Account for "the making" of Agricola, and his call to 
Antwerp. What was the outcome? What was the worth of 
his advice? 



THE RENAISSANCE 179 

19. Account for the making of Reuchlin, and describe the vast 
services which he rendered the cause of education, not overlook- 
ing the result of his controversy. 

20. Account for the making of Erasmus, describe his varied 
career, and the great services which he rendered to the cause of 
the Reformation and education. 

21. Account for the arrival of humanism in England. Ex- 
plain the connections of Grocyn and Linacre with Oxford, and 
place some estimate upon the value of their services. 

22. How did humanism reach Cambridge, and through whom 
was it promoted there? 

23. Describe the part played by Cheke, Ascham, Colet, and 
Henry VIII in the history of education. 

24. Place some value on northern humanism, and follow it 
to its decline. 



PART III 

THE REFORMATION 

CHAPTER XII 

THE REFORMATION 

Modifying impulses attached themselves to the 
Renaissance north of the Alps, and helped to produce 
the Reformation. 

Causes. — Northern temper, with its religious and 
moral impulses, induced the northern humanists to 
use the knowledge of the dead languages, rather than 
Aristotehan logic, in the interpretation of the Holy 
Scriptures. In this way these scholarly humanists, 
especially in the University of Paris, long the centre 
of theological study, but elsewhere also, presently dis- 
covered what to them looked like unpardonable in- 
consistencies in the Hfe of the clergy and people, and 
in the traditions of the church as an institution. This 
feeling, as we have seen, was conspicuously true of 
men like Erasmus, who, without a thought of revolt 
from the church, worked earnestly for reform from 
within. 

The French Waldenses, the EngUsh Wycliffites, and 
the Bohemian Hussites had really arrived at similar 
conclusions of protest long before the humanists. 
Political and social conditions, together with the ar- 
rival on the scene of men like Luther, men of pro- 
found convictions and heroic cast, hastened the crisis. 

The daring freedom of thought, so characteristic of 

180 



THE REFORMATION 181 

the Renaissance from the very beginning, and present 
in all these discoveries of error and evil in the church, 
developed at length, in the sixteenth century, into 
open protest and revolution — the Reformation had 
fully come. 

Nature. — In its most exalted aspects the Reforma- 
tion was the Renaissance ennobled by religious and 
moral impulse. These impulses rescued individualism 
from the paganistic nature-worship and self-indulgence 
with which it was bound up so largely in Italy, and to 
which Vittorino da Feltre was so notable an exception. 
In the Reformation human reason became still more 
aggressive than in humanism, growing more fully con- 
scious of its power to solve some of the greatest prob- 
lems of life — Hfe here and life hereafter. The convic- 
tion that the soul is responsible to God and man for 
the use which it makes of reason in the solution of these 
problems allied itself with intense resentment against 
all institutional repression and all traditions, whether 
in church or state, which tended to hinder freedom of 
thought or freedom of action. This aggressiveness, 
however, did not prevent reason from submitting with 
profound reverence to the Holy Scriptures, rather than 
to the decrees of councils or the edicts of popes, as a 
final court of appeal in matters of faith and life, and 
it went so far as to make, not the church, but the in- 
dividual, responsible for the interpretation of the Holy 
Scriptures. To this end the Bible was to be given to 
the masses in the languages which they speak, and 
this task was greatly faciHtated by the activity of the 
printing-press. 

Influence. — In thus exalting the intrinsic worth of 
the individual — his right to think for himself in matters 



182 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of salvation and morality — his personal responsibility 
to the future as well as to the present — the Reforma- 
tion "opened a door" which, although Protestantism 
has not always kept open more effectively than Catholi- 
cism, can never again be completely closed. As means 
to ends, education became the powerful essential of 
the whole movement, and the heir of all its values. 

LUTHER 

The first great character of the Reformation was 
Martin Luther (1483-1546). In him all the ennobling 
impulses and aspirations which produced the movement 
found their greatest exponent.* 

In the Making. — Luther, born at Eisleben, was the 
son of a Saxon German, a poor miner. "He was 
brought up in an atmosphere of deeply earnest but 
austere piety. His early school-days at Mansfield 
were darkened by harsh discipline and cruel methods 
of instruction. Destined to a learned career, he was 
sent, at the age of fourteen, to the school at Magde- 
burg conducted by the Brethren of the Common Life, 
and a year later he was removed to the school at Eisen- 
ach, presided over by John Trebonius, a learned hu- 
manist and celebrated teacher. Quick of comprehen- 
sion and gifted in oratory, he excelled all his fellow 
pupils. He continued his studies, which included 
logic, rhetoric, physics, and the ancient languages, at 
the University of Erfurt, and broadened his culture 
still further by extensive reading, especially in the 
scholastic philosophy. It was in the library of the 
university that Luther one day discovered a Bible, a 
* Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," pp. 195-196. 



THE REFORMATION 183 

copy of which, though in his twentieth year, he had 
never seen."* 

A deep sense of sin, due in part to native temper, 
but certainly also to his bringing up and the influence 
of the "Brethren," together with the tragic loss of his 
friend Alexis at the Erfurt gate, induced him, con- 
trary to the wishes of his father, who hoped he would 
study law, to enter the cloister of the Augustinian 
monks at Erfurt. Here, in order to find the soul- 
peace for which he longed so profoundly, but which 
his religion of works and penances had failed to bring 
him, "he studied the Bible with such energy and suc- 
cess that he could at once refer to any passage in it." 
His soul-agony drove him ever deeper into the very 
heart of the Holy Scriptures, until, at length, in his 
conclusion, based upon his study, and the coun- 
sels of a pious friend, that salvation comes not 
by works which man can do, but by the grace of 
God in Christ, he found the peace of soul which he 
sought. 

This belief in justification by faith, with all its logical 
corollaries, made it a matter of conscience, no less 
than of reason, even if it required heroic courage, to 
protest against all doctrines and practices of the church 
that were out of harmony with such faith, and which 
he therefore blamed for the shameful spiritual laxity 
of his age. Taking the writings of Augustine as a 
basis, he organized his conclusions into a logical system, 
which he began to teach and defend with great vigor. 
He was now (1508) appointed professor of theology in 
the newly founded University of Wittenberg, where, 
in order to prove his positions, he attacked Aristotle 

* Painter's "Luther on Education," chap. V. 



184 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and the schoolmen with great power, appealing to 
primitive Christianity and the right of free thought. 

The climax in the making of the great reformer was 
approaching. Several events hastened the crisis. 
Among them was a commissioned journey to Rome 
which opened his eyes to conditions that fairly stag- 
gered him. An official visitation to Meissen and 
Thuringia added to his grief. Finally, when Tetzel 
invaded his parish with his "indulgences" the cup of 
Luther's woe was full, and he nailed the memorable 
"ninety-five theses" on the door of the castle church 
at Wittenberg, and thus (15 17) challenged the learned 
class, in the usual way, to a great debate. The "die 
was cast," and after his contest with Eck, Luther found 
himself irrevocably committed against the church as 
custodian of the Holy Book, and thus became the cham- 
pion of the "open Bible," which he loved because it 
brought him peace, and he wished mankind to find 
what he had found. 

Luther's Services to Education. — Luther saw, as 
we see to-day, that an open Bible would conserve the 
rights of the individual to think for himself in those 
matters which are of the highest personal importance, 
and that superior reason and superior conscience, 
touched by the divine in this open book, would adjust 
all essential claims of the individual, not only with 
the just demands of the social whole, but also with 
the claims of God, placing God's claims above all 
others in these adjustments. 

Paganism, being without a "revelation," had never 
succeeded in making these adjustments; and the 
Christian Church, in her zeal to curb the extreme in- 
dividualism of Graeco-Roman paganism, had gradually, 



THE REFORMATION 185 

on becoming the sole custodian of education (529), 
arrogated to herself all rights of interpretation. She 
accomplished this by refusing to give the Bible to the 
laity in living languages, thus compelling both reason 
and conscience to submit to prescriptions, until she 
had defeated the very ends of Christ's coming. Luther, 
catching the Master's spirit anew, was the first to rebel 
against these prescriptions successfully, and, by giv- 
ing the people the open book, and thus adjusting all 
rightful claims to each other, he ushered in the modern 
ages. 

Luther hoped to accomplish his educational ideals 
through a reorganized church and state, co-operating 
with each other and with the home. All his educa- 
tional activities and ideas command profound atten- 
tion, and serve as ideals to-day. 

Writings. — Luther frequently referred to education 
from the pulpit, in his letters, and in his addresses, but 
the contributions which give him such a high rank as 
an educator are his translation of the Bible, his cate- 
chisms, his appeal to the cities, and his sermon on the 
duty of sending children to school. 

He translated the New Testament into German at 
Wartburg, where in 1521, after his memorable trial 
at Worms, powerful friends secreted him for his per- 
sonal safety; and he completed his translation of the 
Bible in 1534. He did this to get it before the masses, 
using their simple and expressive vocabulary with such 
marvellous selection and correctness of expression 
that, in a few years — thanks to the printing-press — 
nearly half a million copies were in circulation, and 
this in spite of the fact that there were other German 
translations extant. Here was an educational, as well 



186 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

as literary, achievement, whose worth can hardly be 
overestimated. It produced the common schools of 
Germany, for if the masses are to read the Bible, and 
thus think for themselves, they must of course learn to 
read, and Luther soon persuaded the Protestant con- 
gregations and princes to establish such schools. That 
this purpose was in his mind in the translation of the 
Bible appears from the fact that his friend and admirer, 
John Bugenhagen (1485-1558), who reorganized the 
churches in the cities and the states of northern Ger- 
many, ordered, as early as 1520, as at Hamburg, in 
every parish, not only a Latin school, but also a Ger- 
man school for boys and one for girls. 

In 1524 Luther wrote his celebrated "Letter to the 
Mayors and Aldermen of All Cities in Behalf of Chris- 
tian Schools." It bore fruit at once, for the following 
year he was commissioned by the Count of Mansfield 
to found a model German school at Eisleben. This 
was done by Luther's coworker, Melanchthon. It 
was out of these separate foundations by churches and 
rulers that the present " Volksschulen " of Germany 
developed in course of time. 

In his parish visitations Luther found the people 
exceedingly ignorant, and therefore in 1529, to bring 
Bible study within the scope of their understanding, 
and to help them interpret it when he should translate 
it, he produced two German catechisms, one for chil- 
dren and the other for adults, thus in effect organizing 
the home into a catechetical school and furnishing the 
schools a suitable summary of religious instruction. 

In 1535, the year after he had completed his transla- 
tion of the Bible, he wrote his celebrated "Sermon on 
the Duty of Sending Children to School." This pro- 



THE REFORMATION 187 

duction, like his "Letter to the Mayors," is an extended 
treatise on education, in which he touched with a mas- 
ter-hand on practically all the great subjects of school 
organization, educational purposes, suitable courses, 
teachers, methods, discipline. 

Ideas.— Experience had early convinced Luther, as 
in harmony with all we know about the man we might 
have expected, that education based on the Bible was 
the surest safeguard of the high and holy interests of 
the home, the church, and the state, and, inasmuch as 
they were all beneficiaries, they were to be jointly held 
responsible for the establishment and maintenance of 
schools, together with the training and employment of 
teachers. On this point he said: "Even if there were 
no soul, and men did not need schools . . . for the 
sake of Christianity, . . . society, for the mainte- 
nance of civil order and the proper regulation of the 
household, needs accomplished and well-trained men 
and women." 

Luther saw, as we do to-day, how greatly the wel- 
fare of church and state depends upon our homes. 
Accordingly he advocated that education should begin 
at home through elementary instruction in the cate- 
chism, which instruction by the parents he had made 
possible, and for which he held them sacredly respon- 
sible. On this point he says: "No one should become 
a father unless he is able to instruct his children in the 
Ten Commandments and the Gospel." He loved 
music, and encouraged the singing of hymns in the 
home circle. 

Recognizing that most parents, much as they might 
wish to serve the church and state, were not in position 
to do so, especially since they were not professionally 



188 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

trained, he proposed German schools for both boys and 
girls, where, as we have seen at Hamburg and Eisleben, 
in connection with instruction in the catechism, other 
studies such as singing, reading, writing, arithmetic, 
history, physical culture, and even "nature" should 
be taken up under trained teachers. "We see indeed 
how it goes with this teaching and training," said he 
in a passage addressed to parents who thought they 
could teach their own sons and daughters. 

While Luther did not advocate long school hours, 
seeing that these might encroach too seriously upon 
the home life and occupational pursuits, he was so 
thoroughly convinced about the importance of educa- 
tion to both church and state that he insisted on 
compulsory attendance. He said: " If the government 
can compel such citizens as are fit for military services 
... to perform martial duties," it ought "to compel 
the people to send their children to school, because in 
this case we are warring with the devil," and because 
"Those that enjoy the privileges of a country are to 
contribute toward everything that the common in- 
terests of the country require." 

Luther esteemed the office of teaching very highly, 
asserting that if he were not a minister of the gospel 
he would like to be a teacher, and calling attention to 
the fact that in many respects the teacher has the 
advantage, seeing that children can be shaped for good 
while adults are often past shaping. "It is hard," 
said he, "to make old dogs docile and old rogues pious, 
yet that is what the ministry works at; but young 
trees, though some may break in pieces, are more 
easily bent and trained." 

To Luther the personality and professional equipment 



THE REFORMATION 189 

of the teacher were things of inestimable value. Such 
a teacher, said he, "can never be sufficiently recom- 
pensed." He was particularly concerned about the 
happiness of school children, and while, because edu- 
cation is so important to the home, the church, and 
the state, he insisted on "thoroughness," "he sought 
to adapt instruction to the capacity of children, to 
make learning pleasant, to awaken mind through skil- 
ful questioning, to study things as well as words, and 
to temper discipline with love." * 

In addition to the German schools, meant for "the 
people," Luther advocated a more academic course 
for "the brightest pupils, who give promise of becom- 
ing teachers, preachers, and workers." These high 
schools, as we might call them, true to the humanistic 
spirit of the age, were to be conducted in Latin, and the 
curriculum was to include civics, gymnastics, and 
mathematics for the state, as well as "nature," history, 
music, and the Scriptures for the sake of the church. 

Nor was Luther in any way insensible to the direct 
service of humanism to the Reformation, for he saw 
that the "dead languages" constituted an indispensable 
key to the thorough study of the Scriptures and the 
Church Fathers, not to speak of their worth to other 
great professions, such as the law and medicine, and 
therefore proposed that for leadership in both church 
and state, universities must be maintained, and that 
the curriculum should include the highest possible 
training in philosophy as the handmaid of theology. 
Nevertheless, he realized that when reason and faith 
seem to conflict, the Holy Scriptures, rather than reason 

* Luther's "Letter to the Mayors" and "Sermon on the Duty of 
Sending Children to School." 



190 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

in the scholastic sense, must be the final court of appeal. 
This, as we recall, was the attitude which he assumed 
in his famous trial at Worms, and from which position 
he never swerved. 

Luther was fully "modern" in his advocacy of "li- 
braries," where, for the preservation of "learning," 
and for purposes of correlation with institutional edu- 
cation, as well as for general information, not only the 
Bible in the original languages should be accessible, 
but where the necessary commentaries, together with 
general reference works, and literary masters, should 
be placed. Pressed to their full import, these recom- 
mendations looked forward to modern public libraries. 

Estimate. — We are told that Luther at times used 
intemperate language and resorted to severity. This 
was no doubt true, nor should we be surprised. The 
sin and shame of his age was enough to provoke a saint 
to righteous wrath, and the opposition which "prin- 
cipalities and powers," of whom better things were to 
be expected, brought to bear upon him on account of 
the advanced views which he championed, were enough 
to unman a superman. 

In his riper years, due to the Peasants' War and other 
excesses committed by some of his followers, he re- 
ceded from the extreme Renaissance position which he 
had taken on the question of "individual reason," for 
he recognized, as we do to-day, that even superior in- 
dividuality may err irreparably. 

The services which Luther and his noble contem- 
poraries rendered to the cause of human freedom in 
religion and morality, in science and philosophy, as 
well as in social and civic life, may not prevent future 
perils, as, alas, it has not done completely even in the 



THE REFORMATION 191 

house of its birth, but the abject serfdom from which 
they rescued liberty will probably never again become 
possible. 

MELANCHTHON 

The one man through whom, next to Luther, the 
Reformation of the sixteenth century contributed most 
directly to education was Philip Melanchthon (1497- 
1560). 

In the Making. — Philip Schwarzerd (black earth), 
known best by his humanistic Greek name " Me- 
lanchthon," was the son of an armorer, and was born 
at Bretten, in Baden, Germany. At the age of ten he 
was left an orphan, whereupon his grandmother, a 
sister of Reuchlin, took him. The great German hu- 
manist liked the boy very much, and encouraged him 
in his studies. Thus he was able to enter college. He 
was graduated from Heidelberg University at the age 
of fifteen, and soon afterward became tutor to the son 
of a German count, but continued his studies, especially 
Greek, so industriously at Tubingen, where he first came 
upon Erasmus's edition of the Greek Testament, that in 
1 5 14, when only seventeen years old, he was given the 
degree of "Master of Arts." He now began to lecture 
on Cicero, Terence, and Greek grammar, but devoted 
himself with great power to the further study of hu- 
manism, together with theology, jurisprudence, and 
medicine. His lectures began to attract much atten- 
tion, and in 15 18, when only twenty-one years old, he 
was called to the University of Wittenberg, through 
Reuchlin's influence, as professor of Greek. Me- 
lanchthon's inaugural address made a wonderful im- 
pression. Luther, who was then professor of phi- 



192 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

losophy, and to whom the young professor had been 
introduced, now forgot that the new professor was so 
youthful and so small of stature, and, captivated by his 
learning and his eloquence, took him right into his heart. 
The great Erasmus was as much pleased as Luther. 
From that time on Melanchthon became the "ally of 
Luther" and the "Praeceptor Germaniae." 

Educational Services. — Melanchthon would without 
doubt have contributed much to higher education by 
his own initiative, but as coworker and complement 
of Luther he helped to make Wittenberg an educa- 
tional centre from which radiated influence that may 
touch the ends of the world and the ends of time. 

As Professor. — Melanchthon was deeply interested 
in the personal welfare of students. *'He welcomed 
them to his home and gave them individual encourage- 
ment and aid." He even went so far as to open a 
private school for the special benefit of students who 
came to Wittenberg without adequate preparation. 
In this preparatory school he gave the ancient languages 
his special attention, but also offered courses in geog- 
raphy, history, and mathematics. 

Attracted by his learning, eloquence, and charming 
personality, thousands of students, from all parts of 
Europe, came to Wittenberg to hear his lectures on 
the gospel and the ancient learning. He remained 
at Wittenberg forty-two years, and thus the time came 
when there was scarcely a school of any importance 
in Germany that did not number one or more of his 
pupils among its teachers. The most distinguished 
teachers of the age, like Neander and Trotzendorf, 
were his pupils, or like Sturm, drew upon him for coun- 
sel. In 1536, through his influence, the university 



THE REFORMATION 193 

was remodelled so as to embody the best fruits of 
humanism and the Reformation, and the new univer- 
sities which sprang up in Europe presently, followed 
the lead of Wittenberg. Thus it came about that 
" when a prince needed a professor for his university, 
or a city a rector for its schools, Melanchthon was 
consulted," and one of his pupils selected for the place. 

As Writer of Books. — Melanchthon began his career 
as a writer at Tubingen, where at the age of nineteen 
he published an edition of Terence, and soon afterward 
a Greek grammar that attracted much attention, and 
in 1522 a Latin grammar that was used very exten- 
sively. He wrote admirable text-books on rhetoric, 
logic, ethics, and other subjects, and published charm- 
ing editions of the Greek and Latin classics. His two 
immortal works were the "Loci Communes," in which 
(15 21) he gave the theology of the Reformation its 
first systematic expression, and the "Saxony School 
Plan," in which (1528) he gave the composite educa- 
tional ideahsm resulting from the fusion of the Reforma- 
tion with the Renaissance its first and powerfully effec- 
tive expression. To this book we must pay our special 
respects. 

It will be remembered that in 1525 Melanchthon, 
through Luther's influence, and the Count of Mans- 
field's behest, organized a school for the boys and 
girls of Eisleben. In the same spirit the Elector of 
Saxony requested Melanchthon in 1528 to organize 
the schools of the state of Saxony. After visiting the 
schools of Saxony, to learn what reforms were neces- 
sary, he formulated a "plan" which provided every 
town and village of Saxony with a school in which all 
instruction should be given in Latin. To correct the 



194 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

wretched pedagogy which he found to be so prevalent, 
he reduced the number of studies and books, and or- 
ganized the pupils into three grades. In the first 
grade reading, writing, and singing should be taught 
in connection with religion. In the second grade 
Latin grammar and Latin authors should be taught 
in connection with more advanced instruction in re- 
ligion and singing. The third grade should master 
Latin grammar, in connection with difficult Latin 
authors, adding rhetoric and logic. Only teachers of 
character, professionally qualified for the work, were 
to be tolerated. It will be seen that this "Saxony 
School Plan" was really a high-school plan, and that 
Melanchthon in formulating it was controlled by hu- 
manism and the Reformation, fused into three ideals, 
namely, the desire to know what the ancients knew, 
the desire to speak their languages with skill, or elo- 
quence, and the desire to be pious. This Saxony plan 
for town and village schools was widely copied, and, 
although greatly enriched in content, produced the 
"gymnasiums," or secondary schools, of Germany, 
France, England, America. Sturm and other great 
teachers in Germany, Calvin at Geneva, Ascham in 
England, together with the Jesuits in Catholic Europe, 
gave these Latin high schools a very complete devel- 
opment. Somewhat modified in the course of cen- 
turies, they survive as the solid ** middle" of education 
all through the world. 

As an Adviser. — Just as Luther was a mighty im- 
petus to education for the masses, so Melanchthon was 
to higher education. His reputation for learning, the 
zeal with which he applied himself to its diffusion as 
a college professor and writer, together with the fact 



THE REFORMATION 195 

that in the "Saxony School Plan" he had given success- 
ful expression to the desires of the age as it was pro- 
duced by humanism fused with the Reformation, ap- 
pealed powerfully to the rulers and cities of Germany, 
waking up in them the desire for secondary education 
and attracting them irresistibly to him for advice and 
assistance. Some fifty cities, as we know from corre- 
spondence on record, asked him for assistance in found- 
ing Latin schools, like those of Saxony, so that he is 
justly called the "father" of the German secondary 
schools, though Sturm after him gave them greater 
content and better correlation. *'In many cases he 
wrote the basis of organization, laid out the course of 
study, and nominated the principal instructors. The 
gymnasial course of instruction recommended by 
Melanchthon, which included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
rhetoric, logic, mathematics, and cosmology, remained 
essentially unchanged in Germany till the beginning 
of the nineteenth century."* 

Melanchthon's influence on German universities as 
institutions, as well as on the courses of instruction 
offered, entitles him still more completely to the title 
of "preceptor of Germany." It was he who "pre- 
pared the statutes by which the faculty of the Uni- 
versity of Wittenberg was reorganized" to fuse higher 
humanism with the Reformation. Tubingen, Leipzig, 
and Heidelberg adopted his plans of reorganization, 
and so did the new universities, Konigsberg, founded 
1544, and Jena, founded 1548. 

* Painter. 



196 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

OTHER REFORMERS 

The other great religious reformers of the sixteenth 
century who made the extension of educational facili- 
ties a part of their reforms were Zwingli, Calvin, and 
Knox. 

ZWINGLI 

The celebrated Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484- 
1531) was a contemporary of Luther. He was the 
son of an influential citizen of Wildhaus, who was able 
to give him a fine education. He studied philosophy 
and theology, and, through the influence of Erasmus, 
became deeply interested in the Holy Scriptures, and 
their interpretation through the languages, thus arriv- 
ing at conclusions very like those of the German re- 
formers. In 1 5 19 he became the cathedral preacher 
at Zurich, where, like Luther, under conditions almost 
the same, he introduced the Reformation, and with 
it those educational facilities for which such reformation 
called. 

*'He founded a number of humanistic institutions 
and introduced elementary schools into Switzerland. 
In 1523 he published in Latin his 'Brief Treatise on 
the Christian Education of Youth,' which he trans- 
lated into the Swiss dialect the following year," the 
year in which Luther addressed his celebrated "Letter 
to the Mayors of the German Cities." As a religious 
reformer Zwingli gave religious instruction, including 
singing, the foremost place in this treatise; advocated 
the study of "nature" in connection with the Scrip- 
tures; looked with much favor upon Hebrew and Greek 
as means in higher education; and was eminently 



THE REFORMATION 197 

practical when, with his rugged country in mind, he 
recommended not only arithmetic and surveying, but 
also physical culture of a high order and a trade. In 
all these recommendations Zwingli reminds us power- 
fully of Luther. 

Zwingli was slain in the battle of Cappel in the prime 
of life, and his movement, full of promise, was merged 
into that of Calvin. 

CALVIN 

John Calvin (Jean Caulvin, or Cauvin) was born in 
Picardy, France, in 1509, and died at Geneva, Swit- 
zerland, 1564. Though of humble origin, he had a 
good and beautiful mother, and a father who was very 
ambitious for the boy. It was the father's wish that 
his promising "Jean" should be a priest, and so, after 
a thorough preparation by Corderius, the famous hu- 
manist under whom he began to study grammar at 
the age of fourteen, he was sent to Paris, and later to 
Montaign, where a learned Spaniard taught him logic. 
In the meantime his father, perhaps because he had 
come to see that the boy had a "legal" mind, had him 
take a course in law at Orleans. Here Wolmar, the 
German professor under whom he found time to 
study Greek, influenced him powerfully in favor of the 
"new faith" with which the boy's kinsman, Olivetan, 
who was the first to translate the Bible into French, 
had imbued him. We are not surprised, therefore, 
that when his father died, he returned to Paris to 
study theology, which was his greater passion — 
especially now that a "bright light," as he said, had 
come into his life. 

But young Calvin was unconsciously approaching 



198 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

another crisis. In 1533, when he was only twenty- 
four years old, a friend of his, Nicholas Cop, had been 
elected to the rectorship of the University of Paris. 
At Cop's request, Calvin prepared for him an inaugu- 
ral address, which was to all intents a defense of the 
Reformation. For this attempt he was obliged to flee 
from Paris, and found his way to Basel, Switzerland, 
where, in 1535, only twenty-six years old, he pub- 
lished his famous "Institutes," a powerful work on 
theology, whose foundation-thought was the sover- 
eignty of God. 

On his return from a secret visit to Picardy he 
stopped at Geneva for the night. Here, where the 
people had just wrested all power from the Duke of 
Savoy, the Reformation was producing an ecclesias- 
tical revolution. Farel, who was in charge of the 
Protestant movement, learned by accident that Cal- 
vin was in the city, and, securing an interview with 
him, persuaded him, after much serious pleading, to 
assume charge of the situation. Such was his organ- 
izing genius that the new movement gained the ascen- 
dancy, but the stringent regulations with which he 
began his work of moral reformation offended the 
"Libertines," through whose influence he lost his hold, 
and was expelled. He fled to Strasburg, where, "with 
a sense of relief," he gave himself up more completely 
than ever to his favorite study of theology; but the 
Genevan authorities finding him indispensable induced 
him to return and assume control of the religious, 
moral, and civil administration of the city. 

Educational Services. — It was in immediate connec- 
tion with this mission of city reformer that Calvin 
felt obliged to organize educational facilities. The 



THE REFORMATION 199 

foundations had already been suggested by Zwingli, 
with whose work, as well as with that of Melanchthon 
and Sturm, he must have been familiar, and he planned 
secondary schools, or gymnasiums, which he called 
"colleges" (1538-1541), and persuaded his old teacher 
Corderius to come from Paris to help him in the work. 
It is from Corderius that we gather the main features 
of these "colleges." They were preparatory schools, 
in which Latin and Greek classics were taught, together 
with the trivium, religion, and singing, and the stu- 
dents were graded into seven classes. It was Cal- 
vin's hope to educate promising young men for leader- 
ship in the church and state, and therefore without 
the wish to injure the more practical recommendations 
of Zwingli, he added a university to his colleges (1559) 
as a completing process, and called it the "Academic" 
of Geneva. He served the cause himself as teacher 
and professor, lecturing to thousands of students. 

The one fact which gave Calvin a much bigger 
school than Switzerland was that Geneva had through 
him become the "house of refuge" for Protestant 
exiles from everywhere, who in turn took not only his 
religion but also his educational ideals back with them 
into the Netherlands, France, Germany, England, and 
from these countries to America. 

JOHN KNOX 

John Knox (1505-157 2), the great Scotch interpreter 
of Calvinism, an exile at home in Geneva two years, 
wrested educational control from its bondage to feu- 
dalism, ecclesiasticism, and royalty, and vested it in 
"parishes," thus founding free elementary schools in 



200 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Scotland. These schools were to provide boys and girls 
primarily with an education in reading, writing, and 
religion, with the Bible as the text, but the masters 
were mostly university graduates, and this made it 
possible for boys of humble origin to reach the univer- 
sity and through it the highest positions in church and 
life. 

ULTIMATE ADJUSTMENTS 

ij The dominant motive of the Reformation, as we 
^' have seen, was to give the masses, as well as the classes, 
an "open Bible" for religious and moral reasons. This 
privilege, based as it was upon the essential rights of 
the individual, carried with it the promise as well as 
the duty of other educational opportunity, having 
civic relations and livelihood in view. The appeal of 
Luther to the mayors, and the efforts of the other re- 
formers to organize such opportunities, is in direct line 
with these convictions, and thus elementary schools 
for both boys and girls became an early reality. This 
result was hastened by the fact that the Reformation, 
in itself an educational stimulus, became additionally 
stimulating, when through its great interpreters it 
broke its adherents up into denominations. 

Elementary Schools. — The individual rights and 
responsibilities for which the Reformation stood, com- 
mitted the movement from its very inception to the 
establishment of such educational facilities as served 
the ends in view. In other words, the new movement 
included recommendations and provisions for ele- 
mentary schools not only in the cities and towns, but 
also in the country districts. The "church orders" 
which, through Luther's inspiration, Bugenhagen began 



THE REFORMATION 201 

to send out to the Protestant cities and states as early 
as 1520, provided not only for a Latin school, as at 
Hamburg, but also for a German school and a school 
for girls in every "parish." In 1524, through Luther's 
"Letter," Magdeburg united its parish schools under 
one management and adopted the Protestant ideals. 

Through Melanchthon Luther established similar 
schools at Eisleben in 1525 and for the state of Sax- 
ony in 1528. Duke Christopher adopted a modifica- 
tion of Melanchthon's Saxony plan, and in 1559 estab- 
lished schools for the reUgious and moral training of 
the children of the common folk in every village of 
the Wurtemberg duchy. Ten years later Brunswick, 
and soon afterward Saxony, made new rules and regu- 
lations to improve their school systems. Other Ger- 
man states followed suit, estabHshing elementary 
schools before the middle of the seventeenth century. 

Wherever the Reformation found foothold elementary 
schools accompanied the movement. Denmark, for 
example, adopted the Hamburg plan as early as 1537. 
As already stated, similar results followed Calvinism 
into the Netherlands, Scotland, France, and else- 
where. 

In England the Reformation, owing to Henry VIII, 
failed to produce the same results until the Puritans 
took up the cause of the common man. In 1536 
Henry VIII, in order to destroy the last vestiges of 
the power that had balked him in his wickedness, 
began to confiscate monastic lands and property. 
Within a decade he suppressed over six hundred mon- 
asteries and other educational facilities. And Edward 
VI, as Leach shows in his "English Schools at the 
Reformation," was hardly a better patron of schools 



202 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

than his father. Nevertheless, remnants of elementary 
as wejl as secondary education, coming down from the 
Middle Ages, survived the devastations of Henry and 
his son, and rallied into new life as proteges of the 
Church of England and the Puritans, in the time of 
Eliiiabeth and the Stuarts. 

Character of Elementary Schools. — Although, as Lu- 
ther maintained, the civil authorities should share the 
responsibilities of establishing schools and supplying 
teachers, the Reformation found it difficult to supply 
trained teachers rapidly enough. The supervision of 
the schools was usually intrusted to the parish minister, 
on whose judgment the selection of teachers commonly 
depended. Even sextons were thus sometimes em- 
ployed. And for this reason — to which we must add 
denominational bias — the elementary schools of the 
sixteenth and later centuries, especially in the villages 
and country districts, were anything but ideal. 
- While reading, writing, and arithmetic were included 
in the course of study, the stress was laid on religious 
instruction through denominational catechisms, to- 
gether with denominational hymns and sacred songs. 
Lack of pedagogical training compelled the teachers 
to rely on the memory of the learner more than upon 
his understanding, and this, of course, in direct viola- 
tion of the rights of individual judgment which the 
Reformation undertook to champion in education. 
As is always the case where memory is required to 
perform tasks which only reasoning can perform, so 
in these elementary schools of the Reformation the 
discipline was frequently harsh and barbarous. ''The 
purpose was to tame, not to educate the pupils," says 
Dittes in his description of these schools. 



THE REFORMATION 203 

Schools for Girls. — Through its numerous "church 
orders" the German Reformation early made special 
provisions for the education of girls. Separate schools, 
over which qualified women should preside, were to 
be established and maintained at public cost. The 
range of subjects, as the "school order" of Bruns.wick 
(1548) shows, was narrow enough, but better things 
would come in course of time. The curriculum for 
town and village schools was to include reading and 
writing, together with the catechism and the singing 
of hymns. Bible stories were to be read at home and 
told from memory at school. The school-day was to 
consist of two hours in the forenoon and two in the 
afternoon, and regular attendance was encouraged. 
The worthy matron who presided over a town school 
was to be paid the enormous sum of thirty florins a 
year, and, if the town could afford it, she was to have 
an assistant at twenty florins.* This ''school order" 
of Brunswick gives us some idea of what was to be 
undertaken in schools for girls, not only throughout 
Germany, but in the other countries of the Reformation. 

Secondary Schools. — The Reformation found it 
difficult to supply the church and the world with lead- 
ers. This difficulty gave rise to denominational sec- 
ondary schools and universities. 

Gymnasiums. — The Latin schools founded by Me- 
lanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin, and their followers, 
have already been noticed. Out of these, by enrich- 
ment of curriculum and perfection in system, grew the 
great "central" schools of modern Europe, the "gym- 
nasiums," into which also the Hieronymian schools 
and the "princes'" schools were eventually merged. 
* Painter's "History of Education," p. 178. 



204 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

"These schools," as Doctor Painter says, "were founded 
in large numbers in the sixteenth century, and some 
of them, especially in England, have continued to the 
present day. In Germany, Camerarius established a 
flourishing school at Nuremberg (1526), Trotzendorf 
at Goldberg (1531), Sturm at Strasburg (1538), and 
Neander at Ilfeld (1543). These distinguished school 
directors were all more or less influenced by Melanch- 
thon, with whom they had maintained cordial rela- 
tions as pupils or friends. Academic gymnasia, which 
occupied a middle ground between the Latin schools 
and universities, and were provided especially for such 
students as were too young to enter upon the freedom 
and dangers of university life, were founded at Danzig, 
Hamburg, Bremen, Zurich, and elsewhere. In Eng- 
land the great 'public' schools of Shrewsbury (1551), 
Westminster (1560), Merchant Taylors' (1561), Rugby 
(1567), and Harrow (1571) were established." Inas- 
much as Sturm at Strasburg and Loyola in the Jesuit 
schools represent these movements most typically, 
they deserve special treatment. 

Princes' Schools. — Protestant rulers either sup- 
pressed the monastic or secondary church schools, a3 
Henry VIII of England began to do in 1536, or secular- 
ized them, as in Germany and elsewhere. In 1543 
Duke Mauritz of Saxony, in order to fit the more 
brilliant sons of native citizens at public expense for 
the university, and thus for ecclesiastical and civil 
leadership, opened such a school in each of two cities, 
and later on in other cities. Although these schools 
never became very numerous, other rulers of German 
states followed the lead of Saxony, These "princes' 
schools" — Fiirstenschulen, or Klosterschulen, as they 



THE REFORMATION 205 

were called in Germany — were boarding-schools, under 
court control, and resembled the "court schools" of 
Italy in general aim and course of study. 

The education of princes and princesses, as in the 
case of Prince Edward of England and his sister 
Elizabeth, was of course conducted by special instruc- 
tors. Inasmuch as the prince might some day be 
king, and thus attain to great power in matters of re- 
ligion, he was thoroughly drilled in the distinctive doc- 
trines of that denomination to which he belonged, 
whether it happened to be Catholic, Lutheran, or Cal- 
vinistic. Nor did this denominational bias disappear 
rapidly. Doctor Painter's description of the daily 
routine of George III of Saxony, who was born in 1647, 
may be taken as a type of princely education, "At 
seven o'clock in the morning he arose with a brief 
prayer. While he was being dressed the attendants 
sang a hymn; then with the court he went to morn- 
ing prayers; afterward he retired to his apartment for 
private worship, or on days of preaching to the church. 
Then followed two hours of study, which began with 
a brief prayer for divine assistance and concluded with 
a psalm of thanksgiving. The hour from ten to eleven 
was devoted to recreation. After dinner several hours 
were devoted again to study, including instruction in 
dancing. From five to six recreation and supper; 
at eight prayer with the whole court, after which the 
prince withdrew to his apartment, and after private 
worship, retired promptly at nine o'clock." 



/ 



206 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

STUUM 

Though not himself a reformer, John Sturm was a 
contemporary of the great reformers of the sixteenth 
century, and eminently the product of the age. 

In the Making. — Johann Sturm (i 507-1 589) was 
born at Schleiden, in the Eifel district of western Ger- 
many. As a boy he went to school with the children 
of a count, and was afterward sent to Liege to the school 
of the Brethren of the Common Life. What he car- 
ried away from Liege prepared him more than any- 
thing else for the task to which Strasburg presently 
invited him. In the meantime, not even dreaming of 
the great opportunity which was awaiting him, he 
studied and lectured both at Louvain and Paris. In 
1536 the city of Strasburg, having in mind the estab- 
lishment of a gymnasium, invited Sturm as rector. 
After a thorough study of the situation, during which 
time he adopted the principles of the Reformation 
through Bucer, with whom he became acquainted 
here, he recommended (1538) the Liege idea on a larger 
scale, as a city proposition, and the scheme was 
adopted. The institution which was thus established, 
and of which Sturm remained rector for about forty- 
five years, embodied the ideals of the age more com- 
pletely than all other representatives, and therefore 
deserves special treatment. 

The Strasburg Gymnasium. — In Sturm's scheme the 
means to the ends in view were selected with aston- 
ishing singleness of purpose. 

Ends in View. — Sturm voiced the highest senti- 
ment of his age when, in his Strasburg scheme, in 
obedience to the principles of the Reformation, he pro- 



THE REFORMATION 207 

posed to produce Christian men, and when, inspired 
by the purest humanism, he also proposed to repro- 
duce the best periods of Athens and Rome. To know 
what the ancients knew, to speak Ciceronian Latin as 
eloquently as Cicero spoke it, and Greek as Demos- 
thenes spoke it, and to be pious as required by the 
Reformation catechisms — these were the high aims of 
Sturm. He gathered up these aims in a nutshell 
when he said: "A wise and persuasive piety should be 
the aim of our studies." 

Curriculum. — As means to these ends Sturm worked 
out in great detail a classical course of study, en- 
nobled by religious instruction, covering about ten 
years, the pupils to enter upon this course at the age 
of six or seven. The classical course — for ''wisdom" 
and "eloquence" — began with Latin grammar. Dur- 
ing the four years of drill in grammar, the pupil was 
required to memorize the vocabulary of every-day life, 
and to read dialogues which embodied this vocabulary, 
thus preparing him gradually for the translation of 
Cicero and the easier Latin poets. In the fourth year 
exercises in sentence construction were begun, and to 
this work was added a grammatical and literary study 
of Cicero, Vergil, Terence, Plautus, Sallust, Horace, 
and other authors, with a great deal of practice in 
letter-writing, declamation, disputation, and the act- 
ing of suitable plays. Greek was introduced in the 
fifth year. Three years of hard training in grammar 
paved the way for the dramatists, together with 
Homer, Demosthenes, and Thucydides. Rhetoric and 
logic were added to grammar the last three years. 
The course in religion — for "piety" — began with the 
study of the Reformation catechism in German for 



208 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

three years, and in Latin for three years longer. In 
the fourth year the Sunday Sermons were read, and in 
the fifth the Letters of Jerome were added to these, 
while the Epistles of Paul were carefully studied from 
the sixth year to the end of the course. Latin as the 
language of the classroom superseded the mother 
tongue almost from the beginning: apart from a Httle 
geometry no attention was paid to mathematics; 
apart from a little astronomy no attention was paid 
to natural science; and such branches as geography 
and history were not even mentioned. 

Methods. — According to Karl Schmidt, Sturm in- 
troduced two methods of studying an author: "read- 
ing a small quantity accurately," and "getting over the 
ground." From his "Classic Letters" of instruction 
written to the teachers of the various classes in the 
Strasburg gymnasium we learn that Sturm valued 
"thoroughness" rather than "ground covered," and 
that, as an incentive to study, he advocated corporal 
punishment. He took frequent counsel with his teach- 
ers, and insisted upon enthusiastic fidelity. 

Success. — The Strasburg gymnasium was a wonder- 
ful success. "In 1578," to quote Raumer, "the school 
numbered several thousand pupils, among them about 
two hundred of noble birth, twenty-four counts and 
barons, and three princes. Not simply from Ger- 
many, but from the most different countries, from 
Portugal and Poland, Denmark, France, and England, 
youths were sent to Sturm." Through his pupils, and 
also through his numerous books and voluminous corre- 
spondence, Sturm's school became the popular model for 
the classical schools, not only of his own time, but of 
several centuries. The later introduction of mathe- 



THE REFORMATION 209 

matics, modern languages, and natural sciences has 
modified the curriculum and qualitative character of 
secondary education, not only in Europe, but else- 
where. Nevertheless, Sturm may certainly be con- 
sidered a second "Praeceptor Germanise." 

Estimate. — With Paroz, who refers to the matter 
at length, and with others, we must lament this influ- 
ence of Sturm on secondary education. His treatment 
of the German language at a time when, through 
Luther's translation of the Bible, it had rapidly be- 
come a vigorous and powerful vehicle of thought and 
culture, was anything but wise in pedagogy. This 
blunder, and the exclusion from the course of such 
useful studies as geography, history, and the sciences, 
removed his school too far from daily life, and the vio- 
lent divorce of reason from memory to which the 
slavish "drill" of such a course reduces study is sim- 
ply unpardonable. 

LOYOLA 

The Reformation became a powerful stimulus to 
education in the "mother church." Able men like 
Erasmus, as we have seen, had spoken in no uncertain 
tones, urging moral reforms through education. And 
now that, through the remissness of those who had 
become the sole guardians of faith and morals, the 
church had lost her absolute authority over the indi- 
vidual, every effort must be made to restore this au- 
thority and to save the church from similar catastro- 
phes. Strange to say, this "new movement" within 
the mother church did not begin in the highest counsel 
of the church, but in the mind and heart of devoted 



210 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

individuals. Pre-eminent among these self-appointed 
champions of "mother church" was Loyola. 

In the Making. — Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was 
a knight of the little Spanish kingdom of Navarre, 
and a contemporary of Luther. He had been trained 
for the profession of arms. In 1521 Francis I invaded 
Navarre, and besieged Pampeluna. Here Loyola was 
severely injured, and after most heroic conduct, he 
was made a prisoner. Released, he was taken to his 
father's castle, where, after great suffering, he slowly 
recovered. This was the crisis in his life. The only 
books which he found to relieve the tedium of his 
confinement were books of devotion and the "Lives 
of the Saints." This course of reading inspired in 
him the desire to do some service for God and the 
church. Presently, through bitter disappointments, 
he realized that little could be accomplished without 
an education, and therefore, although he was now 
thirty-three years old, he entered the Barcelona gram- 
mar-school, and later took courses in the universities 
of Alcala and Salamanca. In 1528 he went to Paris 
to continue his studies, especially in theology, and re- 
mained there seven years. In 1534 he and six fellow- 
students, among them the celebrated Francis Xavier, 
took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and 
solemnly devoted themselves to the care of the church 
and the conversion of infidels. In 1540, after much 
opposition, he secured the pope's partial recognition 
of his order, which was now named the Society of 
Jesus, or "Jesuits," and of which he became "general" 
a year later. Full recognition was granted in 1543, 
and all operations were henceforth directed from 
Rome by him and his successors.* Later popes added 

* Americana, vol. IX. 



THE REFORMATION 211 

all sorts of privileges regarding such matters as found- 
ing schools and serving the general public, and the 
organization has continued to adjust itself to the 
changing requirements of nearly three centuries with 
a degree of success that challenges admiration, whatever 
else we may think of the fundamental principles in- 
volved. 

The Jesuits. — The military setting with which the , 
career of Loyola began fitted him peculiarly for the , / 
task which, as a result of his conversion, he believed / 
to be his great mission. This mission, as already in- 
timated, was threefold, namely, to restore the suprem- 
acy of the mother church over the individual in her 
care, to win the world for her dominion, and to combat 
Protestantism because, as the champion of individu- 
ality, it threatened to defeat these ends. While other 
means were, of course, to be employed, education was 
to be the chief and final resort, and must therefore be 
planned in absolute harmony with these purposes. 

Organization. — Loyola conceived that the only sys- 
tem of education which would serve these purposes — 
especially that of obedience on the part of the indi- 
vidual to the church — must rest upon a military foun- 
dation. Accordingly, the "constitution" of the "or- 
der," which he drafted, but which was not pubHshed 
until two years after his death, and of which Part 
Four, relating especially to a detailed administration 
of schools, was not finally revised until 1599, when 
Aquiviva was general, provided for a most effective 
gradation of supervising officials and instructors. At 
the head of this organization was a "general," elected 
for Hfe, who as the vicar of God in the "order" was to 
send out instructions from Rome, and whose word 



212 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was to be final. "Provincials," appointed by the gen- 
eral for three years, were to have control of "districts," 
into which the world would be divided by the growing 
society. In each district there were to be, besides 
other institutions, various "colleges," and men known 
as "rectors," appointed by the general but responsible 
to the provincial, were to be the presiding officers. 
Under the rector were "prefects of studies," appointed 
by the provincial, and then "professors," or teachers, 
with "monitors," or assistants chosen from among 
the students. This original organization has never 
been seriously modified. 

From the very beginning great care was exercised 
in the selection of locations, for, in order to make in- 
struction practically free to all candidates for the 
"order," and almost free to other students, and thus 
in time to supply teachers enough for the world, 
wealth must be interested, bequests must be soHcited, 
and the extensive patronage of the "better classes" 
must be assured. These provisions, in which they 
have usually succeeded, helped to make the Jesuit 
schools powerful competitors of Protestant schools, 
even in Protestant territory. 

The Jesuit Colleges. — With Plato of old and their 
philosophical master, Thomas Aquinas, the Jesuits, 
as we have seen, discouraged the wholesale emancipa- 
tion of individuality, and therefore never established 
schools for the masses, but confined themselves strictly 
to the training of leaders selected from the higher 
classes, whose superior lead the masses were to accept 
by faith. 

Accordingly, they established secondary schools 
called "lower colleges," and universities called "upper 



THE REFORMATION 213 

colleges." In order that they might meet the demands 
of the age, and that they might contend successfully 
with all competitors, they organized such courses as 
those of the Hieronymians, or that of Sturm at Stras- 
burg, to whom perhaps they owe the suggestion. 
The first years were devoted almost exclusively to 
Latin grammar, religion, and singing, and then the 
Latin classics, together with religion and singing, were 
studied three more years. During the last two years 
the grammatical study of the classics was enriched by 
rhetoric and logic, and a little Greek. Geography, 
history, etc., were taught only so far as necessary to 
the understanding of the classics. This classical course 
has come down almost unchanged to the present day. 

The "upper colleges" devoted three years to phi- 
losophy, with Aristotle as master, and four years to 
theology, with Aquinas as master. The course in phi- 
losophy, which with rare exceptions was required for 
all who taught in the ''lower colleges," included such 
subjects as psychology, ethics, logic, mathematics, and 
the natural sciences, leading to the degree of "master 
of arts." The course in theology, which was required 
for all university teachers, and which was generally 
open only to those who had taught the course in the 
"lower colleges," included not only theology proper, 
but also Hebrew and other Oriental languages, church 
history, canon law, and electives, and led to the de- 
gree of doctor of divinity. Even law and medicine 
are now offered by the Jesuit universities, in courses 
leading to the usual degrees. 

Methods. — The Jesuits as teachers, highly trained 
and talented, never lost sight of the fundamental pur- 
poses of the society, and, judged by the success with 



214 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

which they adapted means to the ends in view, they 
have probably never been surpassed. The fundamental 
purposes of the order demanded that freedom of 
thought, original investigation, and individuality must 
be outlawed. It must, therefore, become the great 
task of Jesuit pedagogy to confine reasoning to the 
beaten track, and this task was accomplished with 
startling success by compelling the memory to work 
so hard that reason had but little chance to assert her 
claims. 

Accordingly, the learner must acquire the new lesson 
not through text-books and private study, but through 
oral instruction in the classroom. A new lesson in 
Cicero, for example, began with the oral presentation 
of the sentences to be studied. When the lines had 
been committed by sufficient repetition, the general 
meaning of the lines and the sentence structure was 
explained. This was the "prelection." Then followed 
"erudition," which consisted of reference to authori- 
ties, rhetoric, and moral interpretations. 

Each day's work began with a "review" of the work 
of the preceding day, and closed with a review of the 
work just mastered. Each week ended with a review 
of all the work of the week, and the last month of the 
year was devoted to the review of all the work of the 
year. 

In his own education Loyola had learned by over- 
work how serious it is to health and happiness to under- 
take too much. He guarded against these results in 
his "Ratio Studiorum," by advocating few studies, 
short lessons, short school hours, and physical exercise. 

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Jesuit 
pedagogy was the extensive resort to "rivalry" as a 



THE REFORMATION 215 

stimulus to excellence in study and conduct. The 
pupils were arranged in pairs as "rivals," each boy 
watching the other to catch him tripping, and then 
correcting him. In addition to the pairing process 
between classmates, the class was divided into hostile 
camps, called Rome and Carthage, for frequent pitched 
battles of questions on picked subjects. Then, too, 
there were public "disputations" every week, and 
prizes were awarded by judges. Many ingenious de- 
vices for rewards and penalties were systematically 
devised. Very creditable work led to honors, while 
particularly bad work led to disgrace. This highly 
organized system of competitions made even the 
hardest tasks of memorizing and reviewing almost a 
pleasure. 

The Jesuit teachers took great pains to prove them- 
selves the real friends of boys, devoting themselves 
almost to the point of self-effacement to this duty. 
Accordingly, they considered no service too onerous, 
and were absolutely approachable. In order to at- 
tach their pupils to themselves permanently, the 
Jesuit teachers seldom resorted to corporal punish- 
ment, and when such punishment became necessary, 
as in case of bad conduct, it was administered by out- 
side persons called "correctors." 

Popularity. — The growth of the Jesuit schools, as 
we might expect, was phenomenal. When Loyola 
died there were a hundred "lower colleges," and rep- 
resentatives had penetrated India, China, Japan, and 
Abyssinia, as well as Europe. Under Aquaviva the 
number of colleges and universities increased very 
rapidly, and in 1710 the order had over six hundred 
"lower colleges," over a hundred and fifty "upper col- 



216 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

leges" in which teachers were being trained, and about 
twenty-five "upper colleges" that did university work. 
At this time there were seldom less than three hundred 
students in any school, and in 1675 the college of 
Clermont, in France, had three thousand students. 
Thus it came about that the Jesuits helped to shape an 
immense number of men who became famous as writers, 
statesmen, generals, etc. 

They, however, failed to adjust themselves to the 
course of events in the eighteenth century, lost their 
efHciency, and deteriorated into a political machinery. 
Finally, after they had been banished from nearly 
every country of Europe, the pope himself, in 1773, 
suppressed the order. The order was restored early 
in the nineteenth century, but, although they still 
have great schools, the order has never recovered its 
former importance. 

Estimate. — That the purposes for which the "or- 
jl der" was organized were largely accomplished can- 
not be denied; but the ends which they proposed are 
only doubtfully justifiable, and in the additional as- 
sumption that "the end justifies the means," the Jesuits 
could hardly avoid the use of means that were morally 
doubtful. In the effort to mould the higher classes 
to their purpose, they ignored the rights of the masses. 
In their ascetic ardor they closed the door of the 
school to woman, and ignored her possibilities. 

In their pedagogy the Jesuits discouraged individual 
initiative and thus arrested development. The length 
to which they went in the use of rivalry as a stimulus 
often led to bitterness, and exalted success above 
moral honor. In short, while the claims of God were 
to be honored, these claims often degenerated into the 



THE REFORMATION 217 

ambitions of the order, and the rights of the individual 
were sacrificed to the demands of institutional control. 



THE UNIVERSITIES 

The universities allied themselves with the denomi- 
nations which the Reformation produced, but human- 
ism continued to give content to the curriculum, and 
morals suffered. 

Alliance. — Many universities, among them Paris, 
remained loyal to Catholicism, and the Reformation, 
acting as a denominational stimulus, produced a num- 
ber of new adherents, among them Dillingen (1554), 
Gratz (1586), Paderborn (1592), Salzburg (1622), 
Miinster (1631), and several others. All of them 
recognized the church as their overlord. 

In the states of Germany which espoused the cause 
of the Reformation, the majority of the universities 
followed the princes from the old to the new. Witten- 
berg, due to the influence of Luther and Melanchthon, 
was the first German university to become Protestant. 
This, as we recall, occurred in 1536. Marburg, Konigs- 
berg, Jena (1557), and others followed rapidly. Kiel 
was founded 1665, and Halle in 1694. They were 
Lutheran. Among the universities that allied them- 
selves with Calvinistic (Reformed) Protestantism were 
Geneva (1558), Herborn (1654), and others. The 
English universities, Cambridge and Oxford, went over 
to Protestantism with the nation. Protestant univer- 
sities very generally became state institutions. 

Courses. — Instruction continued under four faculties 
as before, namely, philosophy, theology, law, and 
medicine. No really serious attention was paid to 



218 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

mathematics, and such sciences as physics, astronomy, 
and natural history continued to acknowledge Aris- 
totle, Ptolemy, and Pliny as masters. Hippocrates and 
Galen remained the authorities in medicine. History 
and modern tongues were almost ignored, and even 
Greek received only inferior recognition. "All the 
time and strength of youth," as Raumer tells us, 
"were forcibly concentrated upon the learning and exer- 
cising of Latin. Grammar was studied for years in 
order to learn to speak and write Latin correctly; 
dialectic, in order to use it logically; and rhetoric, in 
order to handle it oratorically. Facility was sought 
by means of debate, declamation, and representations 
of Terence. The classics were read in order to collect 
words and phrases from them for speaking and writing, 
without particular concern for the thought." Thus it 
is seen that reason, whose high and holy cause both 
humanism and the Reformation had championed, 
once more fell back into slavery and formalism, and 
this not only in the Catholic universities, where Jesuit 
influence would account for it, but also in Protestant 
universities. 

Morals. — The denominations which the Reformation 
produced, moved not only by the sense of duty, but 
also by keen competition, wanted teachers and leaders 
enough. This demand crowded the universities with 
students, and thus produced a state of morals that 
almost staggers imagination. Hazing, which resorted 
to barbarities now considered criminal, and scandalous 
orgies that sometimes ended in nothing less than mur- 
der, were all too common. In the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, as Duke Albrecht of Saxony* 

* Painter, p. i86. 



THE REFORMATION 219 

tells us, the reputation of the universities had already 
suffered much, and the authorities began to look about 
for ways and means to end the disgrace. Germany 
broke up the custom about 1660, and similar action 
became more or less general, thus giving rise to marked 
improvement in the university life and work. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

3. Graves' "History of Education," vol. IH, "Modern 
Times." 

4. Parker's "Modern Elementary Education." 

5. Duggan's "History of Education." 

6. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

7. Guizot's "History of Civilization." 

8. Schwickerath's "Jesuit Education." 

9. Mombert's "Great Lives." 

10. Quick's "Educational Reformers." 

11. Hughes' "Loyola." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Trace the course of the Reformation as an educational 
event. 

2. Consider Luther in the making as fully as possible. Why 
did Luther insist on an "open Bible"? Compare his posi- 
tion with that of paganism, Romanism, and modern Prussian- 
ism as an educational ideal. How were his writings related to 
the ends in view? Gather up Luther's ideas on education, and 
compare each with present ideas on the same subjects. Esti- 
mate the greatness of Luther as a force in educational progress. 

3. What was there in his training and personality that made 
Melanchthon such a valuable coworker of Luther? In what 
three ways did Melanchthon serve the cause of education? 
Explain these services at length. 

4. Account for Zwingli as an educational reformer, and de- 
scribe his services to the cause of education. 



220 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

5. Account as fully as possible for Calvin's presence at Geneva, 
and explain his services to the cause of education. 

6. Account for John Knox as an educational reformer, and 
describe his services to the cause. 

7. Give the fundamental and secondary reasons for the 
stimulating effect which the Reformation had on elementary 
education. Trace this effect in Germany, England, and else- 
where. Account for the narrow curriculum, mechanical methods, 
and harsh discipline in the "country schools." 

8. Describe the education which the Reformation offered to 
girls. 

9. Why did the Reformation promote interest in secondary 
education? Describe the education thus planned for princes. 

10. How did the Reformation help to produce the Latin 
schools (gymnasiums) ? Trace this movement in several coun- 
tries. 

11. Account for Sturm's humanism. Describe his gymnasium 
as a system of means to ends. Estimate the influence of Sturm. 

12. How did Loyola come to found the Jesuits? Describe 
the Jesuit gymnasiums and the Jesuit colleges as a system of 
means to ends. Describe their pedagogical mistakes, and account 
for their career. 

13. How did the Reformation affect the number, course, 
and morals of the universities? 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE JANSENISTS, THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS, AND 

THE PIETISTS 

The time came in Europe — it was hastened by the 
misfortunes and the sorrows of the Thirty Years' War 
— when thoughtful men of every creed began to realize 
the insufficiency of a religion that did not satisfy the 
heart and provide life with powerful motives in the 
service of God. In France this conviction produced 
especially the teaching orders known as the Jansenists 
and the Christian Brothers, while in Protestant Ger- 
many it produced the Pietists. 

Cornelius Jansen (i 585-1638), a Dutch professor at 
the University of Louvain, and later Bishop of Ypres, 
had made a profound study of St. Augustine, and 
reached conclusions regarding the grace of God some- 
what similar to those of Calvin. Although his doc- 
trines fell under the ban of the church, his followers, 
like the bishop himself, remained loyal to the church. 
Men of prominence and ability became deeply inter- 
ested, and under the leadership of his friend the Abbe 
de St. Cyran, a number of them established them- 
selves at Port Royal, near Versailles, to devote them- 
selves to various ascetic activities through which they 
hoped to save souls. 

The Port Royalists. — The Port Royal Jansenists felt 
that the corruption to which flesh was heir could be 
eliminated, and the number of the elect saved, only 
by religious and moral watchfulness against the wiles 

221 



/ 



222 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of the devil. In 1643, Abbe de St. Cyran, moved by 
this profound concern for souls, laid the foundation 
of schools in which the children should be under 
supervision day and night. A school was to consist of 
twenty-five boys or less, and no master was to have 
personal charge of more than five or six pupils. For 
this reason, and also to keep the universities from 
thinking that, like the Jesuits, they were going to com- 
pete with them, the Port Royalists called themselves 
the "little schools." Similar arrangements were made 
for girls, who were placed in charge of women of rare 
and beautiful character. Like the "Oratorians," an- 
other teaching congregation founded in 161 1, the Port 
Royal Jansenists accepted the philosophy of Descartes, 
and held to the development of "reason," thus coming 
into early conflict with the Jesuits, who, as we have 
seen, made much of authority and routine. The re- 
sult was that in 1660, after an existence of less than 
a quarter of a century, Louis XIV, instigated by the 
Jesuits, suppressed the "little schools," and dispersed 
the teachers, thus, as Paroz says, robbing France of 
almost two centuries of progress. 

Definite Purpose. — The fundamental purpose of 
Jansenism, as already stated, was to fortify the bap- 
tized soul against the wiles of the devil. This purpose 
was to be accomplished by inculcating genuine Chris- 
tian piety as the only sufficient guarantee. On this 
point St. Cyran himself says: "It is always necessary 
to be on guard as in a beleaguered city. The devil 
makes his circuit outside; he early attacks the bap- 
tized; he comes to reconnoitre the place; if the Holy 
Spirit does not fill it, he will fill it." 

Closely associated with the fundamental purpose of 



/ 



THE JANSENISTS 223 

Jansenism was that of developing the reason — "to 
carry forward intelligence," as Nicole puts it; "to 
impart to the mind a love and discernment of truth; 
to render it delicate in discovering false reasoning; to 
let it not be put off with obscure words and principles, 
and not to be satisfied until the foundations are 
reached; to render it subtle in seizing the point in com- 
plicated questions, and to discover what is relevant; 
to fill it with principles of truih which will be helpful 
in finding it in all things." 

Curriculum. — Children were taken at nine or ten / 
years of age and kept through the difficult years of 
the " teens ' if possible. "Up to the age of twelve," 
we are told, the pupils were occupied with sacred 
history, geography, and history, under the form of 
amusements, in a manner to develop their intelligence 
without wearying it. The regular course of study 
began at twelve and included the Greek and Latin 
classics, together with grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathe- 
matics, and the Church Fathers. Physical culture 
and science received scant notice. Said Nicole: "The 
sciences should be employed only as an instrument 
for perfecting the reason." 

Methods. — In order to carry the intellect of the pupil 
to the highest point, the Jansenists avoided the dead- 
ening routine of the Jesuits, and boldly followed reason. 
Accordingly they addressed instruction "first to the 
senses" if possible, and used pictures. Pascal invented 
phonic spelling. The first schoolbooks were not Latin, 
but French texts prepared by the Port Royalists them- 
selves, and excellent expurgated translations of the 
Greek and Latin classics, through which the learner 
was introduced to the thought before he took up the 



224 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

form or language of the classics. In this way they 
bravely broke away from bondage to the past, and 
paved the way for the ultimate use of the mother 
tongue in secondary schools. Moreover, as disciples 
of Descartes in psychology, they strove to adapt in- 
struction to the pupil's capacity, thus allying them- 
selves with Comenius, Pestalozzi, and other great re- 
formers of pedagogy. Much freedom was permitted 
in study and the conduct of recitations. To quote an 
old French writer: *'If study sometimes intrenched 
upon recreation, recreation also had its turn, for cir- 
cumstances were taken into account. In winter, when 
the weather permitted, the teacher gave his lesson 
while taking a walk. Sometimes they left him to climb 
a hill or run in the plain, but they came back to listen 
to him. In summer the class met under the shade of 
trees by the side of brooks. The teacher explained 
Vergil and Homer; he commented upon Cicero, Aris- 
totle, Plato, and the fathers of the church. The ex- 
ample of the teachers, their conversation and familiar 
instruction, all that the pupil saw, all that he heard, 
inspired him with a love for the beautiful and the 
good." 

In school discipline the Port Royalists, contrary to 
prevailing custom, but in line with their rule of reason, 
relied on wholesome admiration of the teacher rather 
than on force, and therefore resolutely rejected cor- 
poral punishment on the ground that it hinders moral 
growth and piety. For the same reason, and because 
the only true rival of the pupil is his own higher self, 
they condemned the emulation and prizes so sedulously 
cultivated by the Jesuits. St. Cyran, the founder of 
the little schools, keeping this great purpose of build- 



/ THE JANSENISTS 225 

ing character for time and eternity in mind, went to 
the greatest pain to secure teachers who had the requi- 
site qualifications, laying special stress on self-control, 
patience, and piety. "Speak little," said he, "put 
up with much, and pray still more" — a most admirable 
rule for any teacher. 

Estimate. — It is probably true, as has been said, 
that the atmosphere of excessive piety in the Port 
Royal school life must have chilled the natural spon- 
taneity of childhood, but the experiment served as a 
protest to the noise and commotion so prevalent in the 
schools of the time. We are told that, owing to the 
exclusion of rivalry, the Port Royalists were "never 
able to secure the energy, earnestness, and pleasing 
environment of the Jesuits." On the other hand, we 
know that they escaped the deadening formality of 
routine, and thus promoted that healthy mental growth 
which must always be the pride of pedagogy. 

While it is to be regretted that the "little schools" 
were closed too soon to do the good which they were 
meant to do, it was probably best in the long run, for 
the dispersed teachers turned to writing, thus spread- 
ing their views, and in the long run giving Port Royal 
pedagogy a decided ascendancy over that of the Jesuits 
in France, an ascendancy which continues. Among the 
writers through whose books their ideas live are Nicole, 
the moralist and philosopher, who wrote "The Educa- 
tion of a Prince"; Lancelot, the grammarian, who wrote 
"Methods of Language Study"; Arnauld, a great 
theologian, who wrote text-books on grammar, logic, 
geometry, and "The Regulation of Studies in the 
Humanities"; Pascal, a literary giant, who wrote the 
"Provincial Letters" and "Thoughts," most terrible 



226 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

arraignments of the Jesuits; F6nelon, who wrote "The 
Education of Girls," and Rollin, who wrote "Treatise 
on Studies." 

F^NELON 

The achievements of F6nelon and Rollin embody 
the spirit of Jansenism in education most completely, 
and thus deserve special attention. 

Francois de Fenelon (1651-1715) was of noble lineage. 
In body he was not robust, but he had remarkable 
aptness for learning. Through the watchful care of 
his father, and later of the Marquis de Fenelon, his 
uncle, he was able to enter the college of Cahors at 
twelve years of age, and then the University of Paris. 
It was the wish of his parents that he should study 
for the priesthood, for which high calling he was fitted 
by nature. He took up theology at St. Sulpice, and 
was ordained at the age of twenty-four. He became a 
famous prelate, but in the meantime served the cause 
of education as teacher and writer. 

Teacher of Girls. — In 1678 the church, because of 
his special fitness, made him the head of the Convent 
of New Catholics, an institution whose purpose it was 
to reclaim young women to Catholicism. In this 
position, owing largely to his charming personality 
and good judgment, he achieved great success, remain- 
ing there ten years. Almost at the close of this period, 
and at the suggestion of some friends whom he thus 
hoped to help, he wrote his first most important work, 
"The Education of Girls." Compayre calls it "the 
first classical work of French pedagogy." 

Ideas. — In this valuable treatise Fenelon sets forth 
in a very systematic way the Jansenistic conception of 



THE JANSENISTS 227 

what should constitute a woman's education. Al- 
though he assumed, as was common in his day, that 
nature had excluded women from the sphere of politics, 
the law, the ministry, and other high vocations re- 
quiring sterner qualities, Fenelon realized with keen 
perception the marvellous capacity of women for good 
or evil in the world, and therefore the great impor- 
tance of an adequate education 

The infancy of girls should be piously guarded in 
body, mind, and character, lest their own future be 
compromised and the fabric of society be ruined. He 
held that fiction and the stage produce a wandering 
imagination and an emotional tension most serious to 
social and moral welfare. 

In order to save girls and to fit them for the high 
estate to which God was calling them, they were to 
be instructed in such useful branches as reading, 
writing, arithmetic, and elementary civics, and after 
that in history, literature, music, painting, and the 
like, but always in such a way as to guard against 
moral injury. Religious instruction was to be specially 
emphasized, and yet not in such a way as to "frighten 
her from piety by a useless severity." 

The psychological insight of Fenelon, like that of 
his fellow Jansenists, was far in advance of his time. 
He realized the pedagogical value of recreation and 
companionship, and encouraged the largest possible 
freedom of thought and action so long as these did not 
lead to evil. His words to a lady of high rank on the 
question of her daughter's religious education deserve 
to be quoted at length. "Accustom her," said he, 
"to enjoy herself in every way short of sin, and to 
find her pleasure apart from debasing amusements. 



228 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Choose companions for her who will not spoil her, and 
recreation at such hours as will not give her a distaste 
for the serious occupations of the rest of the day. 
Try to make her delight in God; do not suffer that she 
think of him only as a mighty and inexorable judge, 
who constantly watches us in order to reprove and 
restrain us on every occasion; make her see how kind 
he is, how he suits himself to our needs, and has pity 
for our weaknesses; familiarize her with him as with 
a tender and compassionate father."* 

Tutor of a Duke. — In 1689 Fenelon became tutor 
to the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV. 
The boy was proudly conscious of his royal lineage, 
and therefore hard to teach. To make matters worse, 
although he was by nature warm-hearted, he also had 
a violent temper, which made control difficult. For- 
tunately, Fenelon was gifted with marvellous peda- 
gogical insight and literary skill. In order to interest 
the proud duke in history, he constructed "Dialogues," 
in which the shades of distinguished men of antiquity 
discussed all kinds of political, moral, and philosophical 
questions; ''Fables," in which the duke could see him- 
self morally as in a mirror; and the "Telemachus," a 
story on the order of Homer's " Odyssey," full of histori- 
cal, poHtical, and moral instruction calculated to fit 
the duke for his high future. This method of indirect 
instruction was a great success. 

Fenelon was equally successful as a character- 
builder. With his psychological insight, and the tender 
solicitude of the Jansenists for the moral and eternal 
welfare of souls, Fenelon strove to win the bright and 
impulsive boy through self-control, patience, and piety, 

* Painter, p. 248. 



THE JANSENISTS 229 

thus carrying out St. Cyran's injunction to "speak 
little, bear much, and pray still more." In other words, 
Fenelon had recourse to strong measures only when 
all other persuasions, such as praise and a charming 
personality, had failed, or were likely to fail. In this 
conflict for spiritual mastery Fenelon finally won, and 
the duke gradually learned to master his violent tem- 
per, becoming affable, generous, and self-poised. The 
effectiveness of this indirect method of discipline is 
startlingly illustrated by an incident in the duke's 
conduct. Fenelon had gently reproved the young duke 
for some shortcoming, when, as Fenelon's biographer 
tells us, he said : "I know who I am, and who you are ! " 
Fenelon, controlling himself, made no reply; but, 
possessing himself in patience, and taking the matter 
to God in prayer, he addressed the duke the following 
day in a tranquil but serious tone, saying: "You re- 
call, no doubt, the words you spoke to me yesterday. 
My duty obliges me to say that you know neither 
who you are nor who I am. If you think yourself 
above me, you are mistaken; your birth did not de- 
pend upon you and gives you no merit, and I have 
more prudence and knowledge than you. What you 
know you have learned from me, and I am above you 
by reason of the authority which the king and your 
father have given me over you. It was in obedience 
to them that I have undertaken the difficult and, as 
it seems, ungrateful task of being your teacher; but 
since you appear to think that I ought to feel particu- 
larly fortunate in discharging this duty, I wish to go 
with you at once to the king and request him to relieve 
me of my duties and to give you another instructor." 
The duke became greatly alarmed, and bursting 



230 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

into tears, he quickly replied: "I am sorry for what 
happened yesterday. If you speak to the king, I 
shall forfeit his friendship. If you , leave me, what 
will be thought of me? Forgive me, and I promise 
that you will have no ground of complaint in the 
future." 

Estimate. — That Fenelon was a past master both in 
the art of teaching and in the art of governing must be 
evident to any one who understands the force of the 
foregoing pages. We shall do well to catch his spirit 
and to practise his methods. 

Like other rare spirits, Fenelon failed to receive the 
full measure of reward which he deserved. In 1695 
he was elevated to the archbishopric of Cambrai, and 
devoted himself soul and body to his high calling, but 
theological controversies, and the loss of friends, in- 
cluding the king, who took offense at some remark of 
Fenelon in his "Telemachus," embittered his last 
days. He was removed from his high office, and died 
at Cambrai in 171 5, a simple but lovable parish priest. 

ROLLIN 

Through Rollin, Jansenism made its way unobtru- 
sively into higher education and its higher moral func- 
tions. 

Charles Rollin was born in Paris, 1 661, and died there, 
1 741. Had it not been for a Benedictine friar who dis- 
covered young Rollin's fine powers, he would probably 
have followed the simple trade of his father, that of 
cutler. Through this friend Rollin was able to enter 
the College du Plessis, where, due to his genius and 
vigorous application, he made rapid progress, early 



THE JANSENISTS 231 

acquiring special distinction in literary studies. At 
the age of twenty-two Rollin became a master in his 
alma mater. He took a three-years' course in theology 
at the Sorbonne, probably the most noted Catholic 
seminary of France, but he did not enter the priest- 
hood. 

High Positions. — The scholarly Rollin, attaining to 
high positions, managed to bring into higher education 
in France much of what was best in the Port Royalists, 
especially in the teaching of the classics and their 
high conception of the teacher's sacred office. When 
only twenty-seven years of age, "he was elevated to 
the chair of eloquence in the College of France, and 
filled the position with zeal and success. Here he en- 
couraged the study of the French language and litera- 
ture, and revived an interest in the ancient tongues, 
particularly in Greek. In 1694 he was appointed 
rector of the University of Paris, and signalized his 
brief tenure of two years by the introduction of some 
salutary reforms. In 1699 he was made principal of 
the College of Beauvais." Here he worked wonders, 
giving the school a proud place among university col- 
leges. He introduced reforms into the curriculum, 
adapting it more to the age. His most conspicuous 
reforms were the modern ideas which he infused into 
the study of history and the prominence which he gave 
to the mother tongue over against Latin. He lost his 
position in 171 2 through the unrelenting persecution 
of the Jesuits, who could not overlook his Jansenism. 

Treatise on Studies. — RolUn was a prodigious writer. 
Although his extensive treatise on "Ancient History" 
(1730-1738) is best known, his "Treatise on Studies" 
(17 26-1 7 28) is an important contribution to the cause of 



232 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

education, for in this work he set forth much of what was 
best in the spirit and methods of the Port Royalists, 
but with infinite tact affects the innocent fiction of 
describing the ordinary practice of his colleagues. To 
effect his purpose most completely he quotes exten- 
sively from such ancients as Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, 
Quintilian, and Plutarch, and gives special credit to 
Fenelon and Locke. Thus Rollin's work has become 
a veritable treasure-house of learning and pedagogical 
wisdom. We are here concerned more especially with 
his distinctly Jansenistic views. 

Ends in View. — With Rollin, as with all the Jansen- 
ists, the fundamental purpose of education was to 
save souls, and, as means to this end, or as reasonable 
correlates, to develop intellect and character. With 
Rollin the end in view in the study of such subjects as 
Latin and Greek, or history, or geometry, or logic, 
was not simply the mastery of those subjects, however 
valuable such mastery might be, but rather the power 
to study which the pupil should acquire as the result 
of study, together with the love for study which is 
usually the natural concomitant of right habits of 
study. Moreover, he looked upon acquirements in 
turn as simply the means to the end in the prepara- 
tion of the individual for the Hfe to which Providence 
should call him. And inasmuch as character is of 
supreme importance in any proper preparation of the 
individual for life, character-building must be the 
supreme purpose of both curriculum and methods. 
Right moral views, true piety, and holy Hving are in- 
finitely better than great scholarship, courtly proprie- 
ties, and worldly prosperity. 

Qualification of Teachers. — The same Jansenistic 
stress on the inestimable value of souls appears in Rol- 



THE JANSENISTS 233 

lin's conception of the true teacher. Scholar as he was, 
Rollin did not despise scholarship as a necessary quali- 
fication. Far from this, he insisted upon professional 
training. But — and here is the gist of it all — he believed 
that every teacher should go to school to Jesus Christ. 
It is only from the great teacher that we can hope to 
receive "the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, the spirit 
of counsel and strength, the spirit of learning and piety" 
which we need as saviors of children and trainers of 
men. What the teacher of children needs most of all 
is something of the tenderness and solicitude for chil- 
dren which the great missionary apostle Paul felt for 
the Galatians. 

Public Schools. — The same solicitude for souls ap- 
pears in Rollin's comparison of public and private 
schools. He quotes other authorities, and then, with 
the characteristic "reasonableness" of the Jansenists, 
he puts it up to the natural guardians of children to 
decide. "As the dangers are very great to youth on 
all sides, it is the duty of parents to examine well be- 
fore God what course they ought to take, equitably to 
weigh the advantages and disadvantages which occur 
on both sides, to be determined in so important a de- 
liberation only by the motives of religion, and above 
all to make such a choice of masters and schools, in 
case they follow that course, as may, if not entirely 
dissipate, at least diminish, their just apprehension." 

Languages. — The Port Royal "reasonableness" is 
particularly conspicuous in his reference to the study 
of languages. Rollin contended almost vehemently 
that the French people should give the same attention 
to their mother tongue as the ancient Romans gave to 
Latin. And he saw that the languages should be 
taught by "likeness of data," or apperception, begin- 



234 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ning of course with the mother tongue. He rests his 
argument upon the assumption, which is pretty well 
supported by philology, that all languages are largely 
alike in the elements, and he draws the conclusion, 
largely supported by modern practice, that if the learner 
approaches Latin and Greek through French, let us 
say, he will find less trouble to master the dead lan- 
guage because the approach is natural, and that there- 
fore in turn he will find more pleasure in study. 

Girls. — In some respects Rollin falls behind Fenelon 
in his views on the education of women. Granting 
that sex does not "in itself create a disparity," he as- 
serts that Providence did not intend women for the 
great professions, but rather for the queenly reign of 
a household, and that therefore, with rare exceptions, 
the dead languages should not be included in her course 
of study. Great emphasis should therefore be put on 
domestic affairs, to which should be added a very 
practical course in reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
history. Instruction in religion and morals must, of 
course, as in the case of boys, be the chief concern. 

Rules of Government. — St. Cyran's injunctions to 
teachers **to speak little (self-control), bear much 
(patience), and pray still more (piety)," have been ex- 
panded by Rollin into an extensive list of fine rules 
for school management, on which it would be difficult 
to improve. They may be briefly summarized as 
follows: 

I. The teacher should study the temperament of 
every child, and then, with admirable self-control, he 
should punish only to correct. Sarcasm, exaggera- 
tion, harshness, and passion never accomplish the 
proper objects of school management. The rod should 



THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS 235 

never be used without reason and moderation, and then 
only for well-defined, obstinate rebellion. Cuffs and 
blows and other stultifying treatment are unpar- 
donable. 

2. The teacher should watch over the conduct and 
character of children with infinite patience, praising 
honest effort when possible, but guarding against 
vanity. Rewards as well as praises should supplement 
the nobler incentives to school virtues, and no effort 
should be spared to encourage rather than discourage 
the child. 

3. With RoUin, as with all the Jansenists, piety, or 
Christlike personality in the teacher, was the supreme 
element of governing power. "It is a good fortune," 
says he, "for young people to find masters whose life 
is a continual lesson; who practise what they preach, 
and shun what they censure; and who are admired 
more for their conduct than for their instruction." 

Estimate.^ — It is true enough, as has been said, that 
Rollin's contributions to pedagogy were rather those of 
great scholarship than those of great originality, but 
his absolute fidelity to the things of the soul will always 
command the respect and compel the reverence of 
true teachers. 

THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS 

The Jansenists, like the Jesuits and other Catholic 
orders, were engrossed in secondary and higher educa- 
tion. In 1684, however, La Salle, a French priest, 
founded the Institute of the Christian Brothers, which, 
in time, w^as destined to accomplish for elementary 
education in France and other Catholic countries what 
the Jesuits accomplished in secondary education. 



236 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Earlier attempts, like that of the "Piarists" at Rome 
(1617) and of Charles Demia at Lyons (1666), with 
local and special purposes, were either merged in this 
larger movement or succumbed to opposition. 

LA SALLE 

Jean Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719) was born at 
Rheims, and, like Fenelon, of noble lineage. Even as 
a child he loved to commune with holy things, and 
religion was the passion of his whole life. In the 
vigorous pursuit of an education, he was often handi- 
capped by a weak physical constitution; but, gifted 
with force of character, he literally fought his way 
through the local university. He took his master's 
degree in 1669, and then studied theology at St. 
Sulpice and the Sorbonne in Paris. He entered the 
priesthood in 1678. 

La Salle served the cause of education more especially 
as the founder of the Institute of the Christian Brothers 
(1684) and as author of the ''Conduct of Schools" 

(1695). 

The Institute. — When La Salle, as successor to his 

beloved spiritual adviser, Nicolas Roland, first took 
upon himself the general supervision of sisters who 
conducted a free school for girls, he was not seriously 
interested, as he himself tells us, in education. Pres- 
ently, however, a relative of Rouen requested him 
to assist in the opening of a free school in Rheims, of 
which Adrian Nyel was the master. The success of 
this school led to the foundation of others, until there 
were five masters in the town. La Salle soon discov- 
ered that in spite of himself he must take an interest 



THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS 237 

in these men, and, acting first as their adviser, he de- 
cided before long to resign his canonry and his worldly 
possessions and live with them. In 1681 a house was 
purchased, and the foundation for the ''Institute of the 
Christian Brothers" was laid. A rule was drawn up, 
which was the basis of the later rule; new teachers 
joined the community, and the demand for the Brothers 
of the Christian Schools rapidly increased. Unable 
to satisfy any requests except those from towns, he 
undertook to train boys who were sent to him by the 
country clergy, and who were to return to their homes 
after their period of training. In 1685, about "fifty 
years before Hecker founded the first Prussian normal 
school at Stettin, and twelve years before Francke 
organized his teachers' class at Halle, La Salle founded 
a 'Seminary for Schoolmasters,' a real normal school, 
in which teachers were to be trained for rural districts. 
Only Demia had preceded him in this work. Later he 
founded an establishment of the same kind in Paris, 
and — a thing worthy of note — he annexed to this 
normal school a primary school, in which the teaching 
was done by the students in training under the direction 
of an experienced teacher." The extension of his work 
in Paris brought him much care and persecution, and 
yet he found time to organize not only primary schools, 
in charge of trained teachers, but also facilities for 
special education of various sorts. 

Conduct of Schools. — La Salle drew up (1695) a 
code of instruction, somewhat like Loyola's Ratio 
Stiidiorum, which he called the "Conduct of Schools," 
and in which he explains the purposes of education, 
the daily routine of the "Christian Schools," together 
with rules and regulations. This code, first published 



238 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

at Avignon, in 1720, the year after his death, has been 
several times revised and brought up to date, especially 
in 181 1 and 1870. 

Purposes. — Moved by a deep and abiding piety, 
and a genuine sense of Christian responsibility, "La 
Salle thought only of the children of artisans and of 
the poor, who, he said, being occupied during the whole 
day in earning their own livelihood and that of their 
families, could not give the children the instruction 
they need, and a respectable and Christian education," 
and he hoped not only to provide such education 
gratuitously, but also to make it compulsory. 

Curriculum. — The modest course of study to which 
the code commits the Christian Schools consists almost 
wholly of religion and good behavior, together with 
reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the higher grades 
a little Latin was to be taught through the mother 
tongue, as in the Port Royal schools. 

Methods. — The course of instruction was to begin 
with reading in the mother tongue. Writing was not 
to be learned until the pupil could read perfectly. Cal- 
ligraphy became a specialty, but the practical side 
was not to be forgotten. To this end great stress 
was laid on writing notes, receipts, bills, etc. In 
arithmetic very little else besides the four rules of 
operation were to be taught, but these were to be 
learned by reason rather than by routine. A half 
hour each day was to be devoted to the catechism, 
and the religious exercises were to be conducted with 
great reverence. 

The schools were graded into three classes, and the 
''simultaneous method of instruction" was used from 
the beginning. In other words, classes of pupils, in- 



THE PIETISTS 239 

stead of one or two pupils at a time, came up to the 
teacher to recite. This method, now so common, was 
a new thing in La Salle's time. 

One unique feature of the Christian Schools is the 
silence to which La Salle committed not only the pupils 
but also the teacher in much of the communication 
between them. This was accomplished by means of 
a system of signs. 

The discipline of the Christian Schools, as well as 
the routine, was reduced to a system of mechanical 
rules and regulations, and, until quite recently, in- 
cluded methods of corporal punishment that were 
humiliating, to say the least. 

Estimate. — La Salle's work should be judged in the 
light of the times to which he belonged. While much 
of his pedagogy, especially the mechanical silence and 
asceticism upon which he insisted, cannot be defended, 
his devotion to the cause of the children for which he 
lived and worked deserves perpetual admiration. He 
certainly deserves credit also for the originality with 
which he organized his normal school and the simul- 
taneous method of instruction. 

PIETISM 

Pietism in Lutheran Germany, like Jansenism in 
Catholic France, and Puritanism in Episcopalian 
England, was not a revolt from orthodoxy, but a pro- 
test against the dead formalism and intolerance to 
which denominationalism had reduced orthodoxy. The 
"Thirty Years' War" (1618-1648), itself a denomina- 
tional conflict, intensified the situation and made it 
intolerable to thoughtful minds. 



240 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Pietism. — Thus arose the desire to subordinate or- 
thodoxy to a religion of life and love — a religion which 
should really recognize the freedom of faith and con- 
science for which the reformers of the sixteenth cen- 
tury contended, and which should prove itself by love 
to God and deep concern for souls. Godly men like 
Johann Arndt and especially Philip Jacob Spener 
(1635-1705) fathered German Pietism, and August 
Hermann Francke (1663-17 27) brought Pietism into 
relation with education. 

SPENER 

Spener was the most notable of a group of Lutheran 
theologians to protest against the dead orthodoxy of 
the times. He began to study theology at Strasburg 
when only sixteen years of age. Three years later, 
in 1654, he began to lecture on philosophy and history. 
In 1664 he was made doctor of philosophy at Strasburg, 
and two years afterward he became pastor at Frank- 
fort. He was a man of fine natural abilities, large 
attainments, and deep spirituality. In 1670 he began 
a series of meetings {collegia pietatis) at his house, to 
which young men were invited for intimate study of 
the Bible and for the promotion of genuine personal 
piety. The movement spread rapidly and made a 
deep impression throughout Germany. From 1686 to 
1691 he was the court preacher at Dresden. In 1691 
he went to Berlin, where he became intimately asso- 
ciated with the founding of the University of Halle, 
and where, notwithstanding an invitation to return 
to Dresden in 1698, he remained to the end of his life. 



THE PIETISTS 241 



FRANCKE 



In Francke, Pietism became a most fruitful educa- 
tional philanthropy. 

Francke was born at Liibeck, on the Baltic. In 
1676, only thirteen years of age, the precocious and 
deeply religious boy entered the highest class of the 
gymnasium at Gotha. Here, through the influence 
of Andreas Reyher, he became interested in the edu- 
cational reforms of Ratich and Comenius. In 1679 
he entered the University of Erfurt, but, receiving a 
valuable scholarship from the University of Kiel, he 
went there the same year, and remained three years, 
devoting himself especially to theology, but also at- 
tending lectures on philosophy, philology, and history. 
He took a special course in Hebrew under the distin- 
guished Orientalist Edzardi, and in 1685, receiving 
the master's degree from the University of Leipsic, 
he began to lecture there on the Bible. The following 
year he started a society for *'the careful discussion 
and pious application of the Scriptures." This move- 
ment attracted much attention and brought him into 
intimate relation with Spener, who was then the court 
preacher at Dresden. The experiment, however, cost 
him his position at the university. 

At Hamburg.— In 1687 he went to Hamburg, and 
established a primary school. This experience, as he 
himself says, determined the direction of his life. "I 
learned how destructive the usual school management 
is, and how exceedingly difficult the discipHne of chil- 
dren; and this reflection made me desire that God 
would make me worthy to do something for the im- 
provement of schools and instruction." 



242 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Great Work at Halle. — Presently he returned to 
Leipsic, where his lectures on Bible exegesis, "differ- 
ing widely from the cold, logical process of the univer- 
sities," attracted much attention, but through which 
he again lost his position. In 1690 he was called to a 
pastorate in Erfurt, from which the enmity of the con- 
servative clergy drove him in a short time. In 1691, 
through the influence of Spener, he was called to the 
newly founded University of Halle as professor of 
Oriental languages. Here he also became the pastor 
of a poor suburban parish, and thus found the great 
opportunity for which he had prayed — the opportunity 
for educational philanthropy. It is doubtful whether 
the work which Francke accomplished in this suburb 
of Halle has ever been paralleled. Francke began his 
work in a very modest way. The poor used to come to 
his parsonage on Thursday to receive alms. He made 
up his mind very promptly to add religious instruction 
to almsgiving. In this way he soon discovered that 
poverty and ignorance often went hand in hand. The 
discovery touched his great heart, and he often deprived 
himself of comforts in order that he might go to the 
rescue of needy souls. Presently he turned to his 
friends for help, and put up a poor-box for contribu- 
tions. One day a good-hearted woman placed seven 
florins in the box. When Francke found the money 
he was very happy. He began to see that he could 
start a school for the poor. He soon began to pur- 
chase necessary books, and employed a needy student 
of the university to teach the poor in the parsonage 
several hours every day. The undertaking was so suc- 
cessful that the parsonage could not accommodate the 
many pupils, and more commodious quarters had to 
be found. 



THE PIETISTS 243 

Money and friends came to him in answer to prayer, 
and his work grew to such extensive proportions that 
at the time of his death in 1727 it comprised institu- 
tions as follows: 

1. The school for the poor, with which his work had 
begun in 1695, and which continued to prosper won- 
derfully. 

2. A primary school to which the citizens of Halle 
sent their children, paying a small fee. Here several 
thousand boys and girls went to school to be trained 
as teachers in 1727. 

3. The Orphan House where ten overseers had charge 
of a hundred boys and thirty-four girls. Modern 
orphan homes have sprung in great numbers from this 
pattern. 

4. The Latin School, where the more talented boys 
of the Orphan House together with the sons of citizens 
were given a fine training. In 1727 this school had 
thirty-two teachers under three inspectors, and the 
pupils numbered four hundred. 

5. The Pedagogium, which was a well-organized 
boarding-school for boys who could afford to attend. 
Here the languages, mathematics, sciences, arts, etc., 
were taught in connection with religion. This institu- 
tion was equipped with a museum of natural history, 
a physical laboratory, a chemical laboratory, and a 
botanical garden. In 1727 there were eighty- two stu- 
dents in attendance. 

6. As early as 1696 a training-school for teachers 
was established, and called the Seminarium Pracep- 
torum. We are told that only La Salle's Institute pre- 
ceded this attempt to found normal schools. This 
school attempted to supply teachers for Francke's in- 
stitutions and other European schools. 



244 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

7. In time a ''free table" was established to accom- 
modate the needy university students who taught in 
Francke's schools. 

8. Francke was a very practical man. This appears 
from the fact that he established a bookstore, a paper- 
mill, a printing-press, a drugstore, and other facilities. 
These means added to his income, and served as a 
convenience. 

At the time of his death Francke had under his super- 
vision in the several schools and institutions four thou- 
sand two hundred and seventy-three people. 

A large plot of land was acquired and suitable build- 
ings erected for the housing of these institutions. The 
necessary means for the maintenance of so large a plant 
were obtained partly through the commercial and in- 
dustrial enterprises to which attention has already been 
called, and partly through gifts which came from all 
parts of Germany. In 1708 Frederick I, King of 
Prussia, paid a visit to the institution, and being 
highly pleased, added valuable privileges. 

Francke's Pedagogy. — The two conspicuous features 
of the pedagogy of Francke were a deep and abiding 
piety, and, as in the case of Comenius, a keen modern 
insight into the problems of mind and life. 

Ends in View. — Francke's first purpose, like that of 
St. Cyran and La Salle, was to save souls, and thus 
to serve God, and, in the founding of his institutions, 
he depended upon prayer to bring him the necessary 
help. "A grain of living faith," said he, "is worth 
more than a pound of historic knowledge; and a drop 
of love, than an ocean of science." But, having em- 
phasized the "better part," this truly Christian lover 
of souls gave all his educational institutions a voca- 



THE PIETISTS 245 

tional trend most definitely modern. "In all instruc- 
tion," said he, "we must keep the pupils' station and 
future calling in mind." We must teach them to "act 
wisely in life, wherever God may place them." 

Courses of Study. — Accordingly, "In the instruction 
of those who are destined to unprofessional employ- 
ments and trades, the most important thing after re- 
ligion is an acquaintance with the indispensable arts 
of reading, writing, and reckoning; but the elements 
of other branches of knowledge should not be neglected, 
especially the elements of natural science, geography, 
history, and government, which, however, are to be 
brought forward incidentally and later." Francke 
saw the importance of pleasure and recreation in school- 
life, and pointed out as means to ends, physical exer- 
cise, mechanical employments, gardening, and the ex- 
amination of new and interesting objects of nature and 
art. 

Methods. — In his treatise on the education of chil- 
dren, Francke directed teachers to study the indi- 
viduality of pupils. Like the Jansenists and the 
Christian Brothers, he insisted on the mother tongue 
and direct observation as the correct approach to 
curriculum. Probably Ratich and Comenius had 
paved the way for Francke in this realism. Much as 
he expected the memory to accomplish, he was utterly 
opposed to any divorce of memory from reason and 
understanding. 

Discipline. — In the rules of disciphne which Francke 
urged upon his teachers, he reminds us strongly of 
RoUin's Jansenism. 

We may sum them up under piety, patience, and 
self-control. 



246 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

1. The teacher's personality counts for more than 
all else, and should therefore be profoundly Christian. 

2. The teacher should cultivate cordiality and for- 
bearance, correcting the faults of children by instruc- 
tion rather than by punishment. Punishment may, 
however, become necessary. 

3. The teacher should control himself, never punish- 
ing children in anger, nor abusing them with harsh 
epithets, nor scolding them for stupidity. 

Estimate. — Francke's energy was marvellous. The 
amount of work which he could perform would over- 
whelm an ordinary man. His connection with the 
institutions which he founded, and which he developed 
into such extensive correlation, did not keep him from 
the faithful performance of his duties to his congrega- 
tion. As a professor he was a great power in the Uni- 
versity of Halle, causing useful changes in the cur- 
riculum, and elevating the moral tone of the students 
as a body. The printing establishment which he 
founded made it possible to send forth a million and 
a half of Bibles and a million copies of the New Testa- 
ment before the close of the eighteenth century. Un- 
der the patronage of the King of Denmark, Frederick 
IV, he founded a mission in India that continued over 
a century. The teachers and ministers who went 
forth from his institutions reached all parts of Europe. 
Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian Church, 
was one of his pupils. 

The institutions which he founded have come down 
to the twentieth century, full of vitality and promise. 
Through Hecker, his pupil, the practical studies which 
Francke encouraged in secondary education, became 
the foundation of the modern Real Schulen of Germany. 



THE PIETISTS 247 

Through Spener and Francke the University of Halle 
became the parent of modern universities, both in 
curriculum and method. 

It is true that in time Pietism, like Jansenism in 
France, and Puritanism in England, ran into fanatic 
extremes which offended true conservatism both in 
religion and in education, but it is equally true that 
the spirit of Spener and Francke still hovers over us, 
and rests upon education as a blessed benediction. 

REFERENCES 

1. Compayre's "History of Education." 

2. Graves' " History of Education," vol. Ill, "Modern Times." 

3. Painter's "History of Education." 

4. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Account for the beliefs of Bishop Jansenius as fully as pos- 
sible, and explain the presence of his ideas at Port Royal. 

2. On what fundamental points did the Port Royalists differ 
from the Jesuits? Point out in great detail the reasonable 
adaptation of means to ends, and account for the fate of the 
"little schools." 

3. Account as fully as possible for Fenelon's "Education of 
Girls." Explain his indirect method of instructing a duke, and 
point out the Janseni m in his management of the duke. 

4. Account as fully as possible for RoUin's presence in higher 
institutions of learning. Point out the Jansenism of his views 
on four or five big educational questions. 

5. Put your best estimate on the wo th of Jansenism as a 
contribution to the cause of education. 

6. Compare the influence of F6nelon and Rollin on education 
with that of Sturm and Loyola. 

7. What were the "Christian Brothers"? Compare their 
purposes with that of other teaching congregations. 

8. Account fully for La Salle's Institute, and explain the views 
which he sets forth in his "Conduct of Schools." 



248 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

9. Should you consider the Jansenists and Jesuits competitors 
or supplements as contributors to the cause of education? 

10. What was Pietism? Account for its origin, and give 
Spener due credit. 

11. Account fully for Francke's Pietism. Explain his Ham- 
burg experiment and his great work at Halle. 

12. What were the remarkable features of Francke's Peda- 
gogium? Compare the radius of Francke's influence with that 
of Loyola and La Salle. 

13. To what extent did Jansenism and Pietism escape the 
formalism into which the humanism of Sturm and the Jesuits 
degenerated? Would the faithful exaltation of individuality 
really save educational systems from formalism? Adduce 
proofs. 



PART IV 
REALISM 

CHAPTER XIV 

REALISM 

Reaction against the extreme positions of humanism 
was inevitable. 

Retrospect. — The literary beauty which had taken 
the world of the fifteenth century captive was largely 
a beauty of structure and style, but the men who were 
moved by these charms "opened the Bible," and thus 
helped to produce the sixteenth-century Reformation, 
in which freedom of conscience and reason were the 
watchwords of individuality. The new ideals, as we 
have seen, came into collision with tradition and pre- 
scription, and thus produced not only religious wars 
like those of Philip II of Spain and Ferdinand of 
Bohemia (the Thirty Years' War) but also educational 
wars like that of the secondary schools and universities 
in the training of denominational leaders and teachers. 
In these rivalries the very watchwords of the Reforma- 
tion lost their power, and Protestantism, like Catholi- 
cism, organized its ideals into rigid formalism. Pre- 
scription and repression once more gained the upper 
hand almost everywhere. Reaction was inevitable. 

249 



250 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Realism. — The very wars which produced these new 
prescriptive and repressive denominational "fortresses" 
also produced new champions of human freedom, and 
this time, in realism, as the third phase of the Renais- 
sance, truth rather than beauty, and religion in the 
prescriptive sense became the watchword, so much so 
that to some extent at least both beauty and religion 
suffered. Fortunately for the human spirit, this ten- 
sion, because it is not inherent, did not persist very 
long, and although it has not disappeared completely 
from the twentieth century, promises to do so. This 
third phase of the Renaissance is called "realism," and 
may be defined as a demand for education that deals 
with the realities of the present life and prepares for 
its tasks. There were three stages of realism, namely, 
humanistic realism, "social realism," as Doctor Mon- 
roe calls it, and sense-realism. 

Humanistic Realism. — Even when humanism began 
to lose its power over those who dared to think for 
themselves, they could not at once emancipate them- 
selves from that worship of the past to which the world 
had become accustomed. When, accordingly, the 
social fabric of the age, together with ever-present 
"nature" and its forces, began to attract the attention 
of these thinkers, they sought mental refuge in com- 
promise. They began to see that current humanism 
had failed because it had emphasized form, or language, 
above content, or ideas, but stoutly insisted that if 
the content rather than the form of the classics were 
emphasized, they were still the best sources of informa- 
tion in the study of man and nature, and in the adjust- 
ment of the one to the other — which adjustment was 
now assumed to be the great end in view in education. 



REALISM 251 

i 

This view, of which Rabelaisa,nd Milton were probably 
the best exponents, is known as "humanistic realism," ! 
from the fact that it undertook to understand the pres- I 
ent through the past. 

Social Realism. — The social realists were men of 
affairs, interested in the public life of the age to which 
they belonged, and therefore in favor of an education 
that would answer practical purposes. Accordingly, 
they deplored the pedantry of humanism, and its 
divorce from real life, and turned impatiently from the 
life of the far past to that of the living present. An 
aristocratic individualism, looking to personal success 
in public life, dominated all their views. They believed 
that what the young aristocrat needed was an education 
in practical wisdom, secured not in the schools but 
through a tutor who should choose both subject-matter 
and method, with an eye single to success in life. They 
emphasized the living languages and travel for contact . 
with living men, and valued history and politics above 
grammar and rhetoric. A good physique and fine 
manners, with a little military dash thrown in, was en- 
couraged, and, although religion was not neglected, 
it was not allowed to handicap worldly wisdom. This 
class of thinkers was p robably best represented_b] 
Montaigne and Locke. 

Sense- Realism. —The sense-realists also turned away , 
from the past to the present, and from ideas handed 
down in books to ideas ascertained first hand through 
a study of things, which term included both nature, 
and human nature. This movement was therefore 
really a later development of that earliest interest in 
nature which characterized the Italian Renaissance in 
its first appearance. Men dared to study nature for 




252 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

themselves, caring little for authority, even that of 
Aristotle. Nature itself was consulted and investi- 
gated by experiment, and truth wrested from mystery. 
Through this courageous interest in nature Copernicus 
(1473-1543), as a sort of forerunner, discovered that 
the sun was the centre of the planetary system. 

Up to the time of the Reformation, however, the 
church was very unfriendly to such researches, and when 
the Reformation emancipated reason, it was rather in 
the service of religious disputes than for the clearing 
up of mysteries in nature. But the seventeenth century 
emancipated itself amazingly from this handicap, and 
bold investigators, in their first overconfidence, some- 
times reached conclusions in open conflict with funda- 
mental doctrines of religion, and in flat contradiction 
to the Greek authorities, venerated many centuries, 
Galileo invented the telescope (1609), Kepler explained 
the motions of the planets (1609), and Newton the law 
of gravitation (1685). Napier invented logarithms 
(1614), Descartes founded analytical geometry (1637), 
Leibnitz followed with integral calculus. Harvey dis- 
covered the circulation of the blood (1628), Guericke 
invented the air-pump (1650), about the same time 
Pascal ascertained that the air has weight, Boyle pro- 
pounded the theory of the vacuum and of gases (1665), 
and Malpighi invented the compound microscope in 
the service of anatomy soon afterward. 

Literary activity rivalled this scientific activity. 
The result was a golden age of letters in England and 
France. England produced Bacon, Shakespeare, and 
Milton. France produced great dramatists like Mo- 
liere and Racine; letter-writers like Pascal and Ma- 
dame de Sevigne; orators like Massillon; and educa- 



REALISM 253 

tional writers like Fenelon and Rollin. The greatest 
sense-realists of the seventeenth century were Mul- 
caster, Bacon, and Comenius. 

RABELAIS 

Among the interesting representatives of early 
realism was Frangois Rabelais (1483-1553). 

He was the son of a French innkeeper, and a con- 
temporary of Luther. In the Franciscan monastery 
to which his people had sent him to school, he acquired 
a knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, and under- 
took a wide course in general reading. When his 
superiors forbade him to continue his self-selected 
curriculum, he fled in disgust, nor did he stay long in 
the Benedictine monastery to which he next obtained 
admission, but became a sort of itinerant priest, and 
undertook to study the sciences of his day, giving special 
attention to medicine. He became a member of the 
faculty of medicine at Montpelier, in 1530, but remained 
only two years, when he was made physician to the 
Lyons Hospital. Nor was his roving at an end even 
then, but, ever devoted to his studies, he eventually 
became famous as the writer of "Gargantua" (1535) 
and "Pantagruel" (1552), two of the most sarcastic 
satires on education ever written, and far in advance 
of his age. 

Ideas. — The great theme which Rabelais had in 
mind was an education that should benefit the whole 
man. Mind and body were to be nurtured together. 
In the training of the intellect books and things were 
to confirm each other. Religion was to make for char- 
acter, and the pupil taught to fit himself for his place 



254 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

in the world of men, and to perform the tasks of man- 
hood with grace and dignity. These ideals Rabelais 
ingeniously embodied in Gargantua's "school-day," 
in which reading and things, ideas and experiences, 
were to be so harnessed together that reason and 
memory were never divorced from each other, and 
"school was life." The realistic correlation of hand- 
work, head-work, and health-culture which he pro- 
posed were anticipations of most modern propositions. 
School-Day. — This school-day was to begin at 4 
A. M., with reading of "some chapter of the Holy 
Scripture," and sometimes he was to give "himself to 
revere, adore, pray, and send up his supplications to 
that good God, whose word did show his majesty and 
marvellous judgments." Gargantua's programme in- 
cluded arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, 
but the "trivium" so revered by the humanists was 
ignored. Gargantua was expected to master the 
substance of the books used so thoroughly that he knew 
them almost by heart, but what he learned was to be 
at once "applied to practical cases." At dinner, "if 
they thought good they continued reading or began 
to discourse merrily together" about the food they 
were eating and the "nature" of each article of food. 
"While they talked of these things, they caused the 
very books" which they had read on the subjects 
discussed "to be brought to the table" in order to 
assure themselves. Out-of-doors, Gargantua was to 
observe trees and plants, and "compare them with 
what is written of them in the books of the ancients, 
such as Theophrastus, Dioscorides, etc." Gargantua 
was encouraged to study the face of the heavens at 
night, and thus observe the changes from morning to 



REALISM 255 

morning. To this head-work hand-work was to be 
added, for Gargantua and his fellows were to "recreate 
themselves in bottling hay, in cleaving and sawing 
wood, and in threshing sheaves of corn in the barn. 
They also studied the art of painting or carving." 
The whole course of instruction was "further con- 
nected with Hfe by visits to various handicrafts, in 
whose workshops they did learn and consider the in- 
dustry and invention of the trader." Even holidays, 
for which the finest day of each month was selected, 
"though spent without book or lecture," were spent 
in a profitable way; "for in the meadows they repeated 
certain pleasant verses of Vergil's 'Agriculture,' of 
Hesiod, of Politian's 'Husbandry.'" Special exer- 
cises for health of body were prescribed for Gargantua, 
and all in all his work "became so sweet, so easy and 
delightful, that it seemed rather the recreation of a 
king than the study of a scholar," and corporal punish- 
ment was never necessary.* Rabelais's efforts to win 
attention in this novel educational treatise were richly 
rewarded by the avidity with which his writings were 
read. 

MONTAIGNE 

The reaction against humanism in France is bril- 
liantly voiced by Michel Montaigne (1533-1592). 

The early education of Montaigne was meant to be 
an experiment, as it appears. His father put the little 
boy in charge of a German tutor who could not speak 
French, and who was to carry on all conversation in 
Latin. The child also learned Latin from house- 
servants, who never spoke French to him. The result 
* Quick's "Educational Reformers," chap. V. 



256 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was that at the age of six he could speak Latin. He 
was then sent to the famous College of Guienne, near 
Bordeaux, where he was graduated at the age of thir- 
teen, and later he studied law. The city of Bordeaux 
honored him signally, electing him a member of parlia- 
ment when he was only twenty, and twice as mayor 
in middle hfe. In the meantime his services as coun- 
sellor had brought him much into French court life, 
and he appears to have served both Francis II and 
Henry III, the unfortunate sons of Catharine de Medici, 
in some capacity or other, and was probably attached 
to their cause. Nevertheless, having ample means, 
and not caring seriously for politics, he spent much 
of his life in philosophic retirement at the paternal 
chateau of "Montaigne," writing brilliant essays on 
all sorts of subjects, but more particularly on French 
"society" and on education in general. His essays 
on "Pedantry" and "The Education of Children" 
furnish us with his educational views. 

Ideas. — When Montaigne discussed education, he 
had in mind a life of opportunity and individual fit- 
! ness for the living present. His own contact with 
I public men had taught him the utter futility of the 
' formal humanism to which he had been subjected in 
; his own education, and which was still very prevalent 
in his own country. 

Ends in View. — For such a Ufe as he had in mind, 
"wisdom" and "character" were the great ends in 
view, and these ends rather than prescription by the 
ancients should determine the content and method of 
education. 

Course. — The course of study might include some of 
the traditional studies, such as logic, rhetoric, geometry. 



1 



REALISM 257 

and physics, and even Latin and Greek; but the em- 
phasis should be placed on the living languages, physi- 
cal culture, and extensive travel under a tutor of good 
judgment, "whose head is well tempered rather than 
well filled." 

Methods. — In teaching the boy, "Let the master 
examine him not only about the words of the lesson," 
says Montaigne, "but also as to the sense and mean- / 
ing of them, and let him judge of the profit he has made, 
not by the testimony of his memory, but that of his 
understanding." He recommends that Latin and 
Greek should be learned by speaking them, and thus 
compliments the method employed in his own early 
education. He believed that sensible methods of in- 
struction in the schools would make the usual discipline 
of "rods and ferules" unnecessary, and that schools 
would then no longer be "merely prisons." * . 

Estimate. — In purpose and content, the education 
which Montaigne recommends is clearly "social re- 
alism" of a strongly individualistic type, while in 
method it is just as clearly "sense-realism." His in- 
fluence on current practice, though we cannot trace 
it, owing to the difiicult age in which he lived, must 
have been considerable, for he was widely read. Locke 
and Rousseau, as we shall see, followed his lead in 
their social realism, and Bacon and Comenius found 
his practical programme a direct road to sense-realism. 

MULCASTER 

To Richard Mulcaster (i 530-161 1), rather than to 
Francis Bacon, belongs the credit of paving the way for 

* Graves, vol. II, pp. 248-249. 



258 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

sense-realism in England and the English-speaking 
world. 

The basis of Mulcaster's own education was laid at 
Eton under Nicholas Udall, a famous master. In 
1548 he was at Cambridge as a king's scholar. He 
was graduated from Christ's College, Oxford, in 1556. 
Five years later he was appointed head master of 
Merchant Taylors' School, and taught there success- 
fully for twenty-five years. His specialties were 
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but he devoted much time 
to music and the drama. He presented plays to Queen 
Elizabeth for several years, and she appointed him 
rector of a church in Essex. In 1596 he became head 
master of St. Paul's, and remained there until 1608. 
The Elizabethan Age, whose spirit he must have 
caught, transformed him in theory at least from the 
humanism to which he was subjected in his own edu- 
cation, and to which he was committed as head master 
of popular humanistic secondary schools, into a realist 
with ideals that would have made him feel perfectly 
at home in the twentieth century. The two works 
upon which his reputation as an educational prophet 
rests are his "Positions" (1581) and his " Elementarie " 
(1582), both in his favorite, though now almost un- 
readable, English. 

Ideas. — In his search after truth, Mulcaster, like 
other realists, turned his attention to the living pres- 
lent rather than the dead past, and to nature rather 
than tradition. 

Aims. — As we should expect from the period in 
which he lived, Mulcaster emphasized religion, but 
kept the practical needs of the individual well to the 
front, and ranged himself rather on the side of democ- 
racy than that of aristocracy. 



REALISM 259 

Course. — It was Mulcaster's idea that, "for religion's 
sake and their necessary affairs," an elementary course 
consisting of reading and writing English, together 
with music and drawing, should be offered to all chil- 
dren, boys and girls alike, whether they belonged to 
the masses or the higher classes. And to this course 
for the mind, physical culture was to be added on the 
ground that "the soul and the body are copartners 
in good and ill." 

Mulcaster deplored the fact of his age that so many, 
young people coveted a higher education simply as 
the road to "personal preferment," and he believed! 
that this ambition was an injury not only to the indi-: 
vidual but also to the social whole. Accordingly, al-i 
though he admitted the educational value of foreign: 
travel, he did not deem it essential, and thus differed' 
from the social realists, Montaigne and Locke, and) 
even from Milton. Nevertheless, he advocated that! 
after a grammar-school course of four years, promising 
boys should be sent to universities, including "colleges 
for tongues, for mathematics, for philosophy, for teach- 
ers, for physicians, for lawyers, for divines." In this 
matter Mulcaster, with the sense-realists of all cen- 
turies, bases professional training on individual fit- 
ness, and calls attention to the folly of educating a 
boy for the ministry when ploughing was his special 
talent. 

Methods. — Mulcaster strongly preferred public to 
private tutorial education, and emphasized the im- j 
portance of healthful schoolhouses and proper play-,' 
grounds. His faith in the importance of education 1 
for the sake of religion and life led him to advocate 
compulsory attendance not only for boys but for girls. 
He respected the natural ability of the pupil, and ad- 



260 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

vocated professionally trained teachers. He believed 
that elementary work was most difficult, and that 
therefore the teachers of elementary schools should 
have the smallest number of pupils and be paid best. 
Estimate. — The aristocracy of his age and English 
conservatism helped to defeat the early realization of 
Mulcaster's advanced realism. The humanistic secon- 
dary schools, of which he was himself so large a part, 
were still too well intrenched in the English mind to 
permit much revolt, but his advanced views on pri- 
mary education — especially his emphasis on the use of 
the mother tongue and expert pedagogy — entitle him 
to a place side by side with his more famous contem- 
porary, Bacon, the father of English realism in higher 
education. 

BACON 

/ Francis Bacon (i 561-1626) first formulated the 
/principles of modern sense-realism. When he was 
hardly twelve years old his father, an officer of the 
crown, sent him and his brother Anthony to Trinity 
College, Cambridge. Here, where he remained three 
years, he began to distrust the scholastic philosophy of 
Aristotle. He now spent some time in France as an 
attache of the English embassy, thus gaining valuable 
experience. After his return he studied law, finishing 
the course in 1582. Two years later he was sent to 
Parliament, and from that time forward he was closely 
identified with the fortunes of Queen Elizabeth, who 
called him her ''Lord Keeper," and with King James, 
whom he served with a zeal that cost him dearly in the 
end. Busy as Bacon was with his public offices, he 
found time to contribute extensively to literature. 



REALISM 261 

In these contributions he belongs primarily to the his- 
tory of philosophy and science, but deserves a unique 
place in the history of education by reason of several 
works which, through the interpretation of educational 
reformers, powerfully promoted sense-realism. These 
works were "The Advancement of Learning" (1605), 
submitted in English, and the "Novum Organum" 
(1620), which, probably because he failed to foresee 
the future of the English language, he published in 
Latin. These works were the first and second parts 
of a greater work which he had planned, and which he 
called the "Instauratio Magna." To the former two 
must be added "The New Atlantis," an ideal social 
fable, in which his "Solomon's House" was the proph- 
ecy of our modern research university. 

"Advancement of Learning." — Young Bacon had be- 
come as dissatisfied with the humanism of the higher 
education of his day as with its scholastic search after 
truth. The large opportunities which came to him 
for direct contact with the life and needs of his age 
confirmed his early conclusion that the universities 
were wofully behind time. 

Purposes of Higher Education. — He held that higher 
education should have for its purpose, not merely 
pleasure or preferment, nor wealth of knowledge for 
display, but rather the advancement of the human 
race through religion and science. He would, as he 
puts it, have the universities work "for the glory of the 
Creator and the relief of man's estate." 

Curriculum. — Bacon did not dispute that as a hand- 
maid to religion and culture the study of the ancients 
and their tongues was important, but he was op- 
posed to the frenzied worship of style so common in 



262 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

his day, and compared this excessive humanism to 
Pygmalion's folly. This Greek artist hated women, 
but fell in love with an ivory statue which he had 
made. The sciences were Bacon's favorite studies, 
for through them the forces of nature could be har- 
nessed into useful inventions, thus promoting human 
progress, and, when pursued to "depth of knowledge," 
they would "bring men's mind about to religion." 

"Novum Organum." — Bacon therefore undertook to 
formulate what he conceived to be the proper method 
of science, namely, induction, and, because he believed 
that this method was the opposite of Aristotle's de- 
ductive "Organon," and unknown to Aristotle, he 
gave his new book on methods the title "Novum Or- 
ganum" (New Instrument, or Method). In this book 
he condemned the "anticipations of nature" (scientific 
imagination) to which the scientists mentioned on a 
previous page resorted. He urged that the student of 
nature should first of all rid himself of "idols," or 
prejudices, and that, not depending at all upon imagina- 
tion, the investigator should assemble and examine 
specimens of the phenomena under consideration, thus 
arriving at the facts, or particular truths; and that 
afterward he should compare cases where a certain 
effect was present with similar cases where the same 
effect was absent, thus, by successive eliminations, 
arriving at the class-truth, or law. Moreover, he was 
confident that any careful investigator could arrive 
at the same results, and that thus great progress could 
be made with ease, and without loss of time. "I have 
held up a light," said he, when he had finished this 
book, "and the knowledge of nature which the world 
will thus acquire will be power." 



REALISM 263 

Although, as we see, Bacon had missed the very 
essence of induction, namely, scientific imagination, 
or hypothesis, and its confirmation by subsequent 
trials, his brilliant treatment of the subject and his 
commanding position in the world had a very wonder- 
ful effect on thinkers, and helped to usher in science 
in the modern sense. This effect was probably height- 
ened by his prophetic "New Atlantis." 

"The New Atlantis."— Bacon felt sure that in giving 
the world his "Novum Organum" he had put an ideal 
state within the reach of the human race. He por- 
trayed these expectations in his "New Atlantis," a 
mythical island whose inhabitants had in the course 
of ages attained to "ideal conditions of life and so- 
ciety." The pride of the island was "Solomon's 
House," an institution devoted to scientific research 
and invention. The members of this scientific organ- 
ization were busy with all sorts of experiments in 
physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, engineering, 
etc. In these experiments Bacon prophesied "the 
artificial production of metals, the forcing of plants, 
the grafting and variation of species, the infusion of 
serums, vivisection, telescopes, microphones, tele- 
phones, flying-machines, submarine boats, steam- 
engines, and perpetual-motion machines."* 

It was out of these Baconian dreams that Ratich 
and Comenius developed their schemes of "pansophia" 
(all may know all), and tried to grade "circular" in- 
struction for schools. 

* Graves, vol. II, p. 265. 



264 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

MILTON 

The marvellous hold which the ancients continued 
to have on the mind of men long after the advent of 
realism is to be seen conspicuously in the great English 
poet John Milton (1608-1674). 

His early education was carefully supervised by 
tutors. He was an apt student, and when in 1624 he 
entered Christ's College, Cambridge, he was master 
of several languages, and had read philosophy and 
literature extensively. After his college course he re- 
tired to Horton, near Windsor, where he devoted him- 
self for six more years to diligent study, and cultivated 
poetry, producing among other poems his "Comus" 
(1634). In 1638 he went to Italy, meeting Grotius in 
Paris and Galileo in Florence. The Scottish war of 
1639 brought him home, and in 1640, the year made 
memorable by the acts of the Long Parliament, 
the stress of times forced him to open a school on 
Aldersgate Street, London, where he maintained him- 
self in part by teaching *'the sons of some gentlemen" 
for about seven years. In the meantime he became 
an active pamphleteer, the champion of the Protest- 
ant cause and the Commonwealth. In 1644, at the 
suggestion of Samuel Hartlib, a disciple of Comenius 
and a friend of educational reforms, he wrote the 
** Tractate on Education," the brief treatise on which 
rests his claim to a place in the history of education. 
It was much later in life, when blindness, domestic 
sorrow, and political perils had ripened his genius, that 
he gave the world his immortal "Paradise Lost" (1667) 
and his "Paradise Regained" (1671). 

"Tractate on Education." — Humanism and the Ref- 
ormation had conspired to produce Milton, so that, 



REALISM 265 

although he recognized the claims of the living present, 
he continued to look at life rather through the eyes 
of the ancients than his own, and thus failed to emanci- 
pate himself completely. This humanistic realism is 
the characteristic note of his "Tractate on Education." 

Ends in View. — The religious impulse, as we should 
expect, was uppermost in Milton, and God's claims 
came first. On this point he said: "The end of learn- 
ing is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regain- 
ing to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to 
love him." From what he adds, we see that he ex- 
pected moral perfection to result from faith and love. 
His famous definition of a complete and generous edu- 
cation shows plainly that, although religion and moral- 
ity were uppermost in Milton's mind, he had not 
overlooked life as he found it in his age. Said he: "I 
call that a complete and generous education which 
fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
mously all the offices, both public and private, of peace 
and war." He evidently used the word "justly" to 
call attention to social relations and moral obligation. 
His realism is evident in the use of the word "skilfully," 
for he connects it with the practical pursuits of peace 
and the patriotic services of war. Nor can it be 
doubted that in the use of the word "magnanimously" 
Milton had in mind the promising young men of higher 
station who should occupy positions of trust and honor 
in life, and that for such responsible leadership the 
highest possible preparations should be made. 

Curriculum. — The ambitious course of studies which 
Milton outlined for the select young men whom he 
had in mind shows how faithfully he kept all ends in 
view, and at the same time how devoutly he still wor- 



266 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

shipped the ancients. The classics were to constitute 
; the basis of the ambitious course which Milton pro- 
■ posed, and to the content of these that of the Hebrew," 
Chaldee, Syriac, and even ItaUan, was to be added for 
general culture. This classical training was to be 
supplemented with an extensive course in applied 
mathematics, and later on with an extensive training 
in the natural and social sciences, including history 
and law. Philosophy and theology were to top the 
structure. And all these subjects, including those of 
the sciences and applied mathematics, were to be 
studied out of books, and to make the matter worse, 
out of the books of the ancients. Milton did not 
forget music, foreign travel, and, in harmony with his 
own custom, as well as in obedience to the needs of 
the times in which he lived, he proposed strenuous 
physical training, in which, true to his bias for the 
past, he would combine what was best in Sparta and 
Athens. 

Methods. — Milton calculated that the boys whom 
he had in mind could finish the course which he pro- 
posed in his "Tractate" in nine years, and maintained 
that an "academy," where the course could be com- 
pleted without change of residence, was preferable to 
the conventional separation of the secondary school 
from the university. 

As an introduction to the ambitious classical course 
which he proposed, Milton recommended the so-called 
intensive plan of studying Latin, Greek, and other 
languages, asserting that in this way Latin and Greek 
might be ''learned easily and delightfully in one year." 

Experience had taught him the importance of adapt- 
ing the assignment of tasks to the capacity of students, 



REALISM 267 

and he vigorously condemned the custom of requiring 
immature students to work on themes and orations 
that taxed even mature students. He valued an 
atmosphere of good-will, and would have the teacher 
cultivate cordial relations between himself and the 
students, thus reducing discipline to a minimum. 

Estimate. — It is true that the course which Milton 
proposed is impossible for boys who are not Miltons, 
and that as a preparation for real Hfe it is too bookish, 
but his lofty conception of the possibilities and destiny 
of man will entitle him to the niche in fame which he \ 
will always occupy, and we understand why, inspired 
by his lofty conceptions, the English Puritans of his 
age adopted the academy ideal both at home and in 
America. 

RATICH 

Among the pioneers of sense-realism was Wolfgang 
Ratke (i 571-163 5), whose Latinized name Ratichius 
has come down to us shortened into Ratich. 

He was born at Wilster, a small town in Holstein, 
Germany. After a classical course in the Hamburg 
Gymnasium, he studied for the ministry at the Uni- 
versity of Rostock, but, owing to some defect in speech 
which would keep him from success in the pulpit, he 
decided to devote himself to educational reforms. In 
the meanwhile he had returned to his native town to 
perfect himself in Hebrew, Arabic, and mathematics. 
In 1603 he went to Amsterdam, Holland, where, as 
a private teacher, he tried for eight years to give shape 
to new methods of teaching the languages. Mean- 
while, however, he had spent time in England, where, 
as it appears, he became acquainted with Bacon's 



2GS HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

work "The Advancement of Learning" and the un- 
derlying philosophy. Encouraged by this Baconian 
confirmation of his own ideas, he gave them more 
definite form, and looked about for patrons who should 
make it possible for him to realize his dreams. 

Response to Appeals. — Maurice, Prince of Orange, 
before whom he laid his plans to reform education, 
was willing that Ratich should try the new method 
on a large scale, but only in the teaching of Latin. 
Unwilling to submit to limitations, Ratich carried his 
secret to Basel and Strassburg, as well as to several 
courts, in search of a patron, but his efforts were un- 
availing. 

Frankfort. — He now returned to Germany and ad- 
dressed an appeal to the German princes then assem- 
bled (1612) at Frankfort for an imperial Diet. In 
this memorial he insisted that the young should learn 
j to read and write their own language before other 
I languages, and promised by the help of God to show 
I how both old and young might acquire Latin, Greek, 
I and other languages in a much shorter time; how 
I schools might be established in which the arts and sci- 
\ ences might be taught in High German, or any other 
\ living language; and how by reducing a whole coun- 
I try to the same language, uniformity in government 
\ and religion could be gradually and peaceably estab- 
I lished. 

\ The pretensions of this memorial attracted much 
attention. A commission of learned men was ap- 
pointed to look into Ratich's claims, and great scholars 
like Helvicus became his champions. He succeeded 
in securing the approval of two universities, Giessen 
and Jena. Several professors gave up their positions 



REALISM 269 

and devoted themselves to writing text-books based 
on Ratich's ideas. These professors went with him 
to Augsburg when that city, in 1614, called him to 
assist in reforming the schools. He looked upon his 
methods as a discovery, and would not permit his 
coworkers to publish anything about these methods 
without his consent. The Augsburg experiment was 
abandoned at the close of the year. 

The Kothen Experiment. — The Duchess Dorothy 
of Weimar finally became interested in Ratich's re- 
forms, and took lessons in Hebrew from him just to 
test his methods. She was so highly pleased that she 
persuaded her brother. Prince Ludwig of Anhalt- 
Kothen, to give Ratich the opportunity to prove his 
methods on a large scale. 

Preparations. — To begin with, a band of teachers 
sworn to secrecy were instructed in the new art by 
Ratich himself. Then a printing-house, provided with 
type in six different languages, was opened for the 
publication of books. After that schools furnished with 
costly appliances were added, and some five hundred 
boys and girls were collected, and handed over to 
Ratich, who would of course work wonders. 

Methods. — The work was organized into six grades. 
In the three lowest only the mother tongue was used; 
Latin was taken up in the fourth and Greek in the 
sixth. Arithmetic, singing, and religion were added 
to the languages. The plan required that the teacher 
of the lowest grade should be an affable man who should 
"form the speech of these young pupils by daily 
prayer, short biblical proverbs, and easy conversations; 
and correct by constant practice the faults acquired 
out of school." 



270 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

In teaching the mother tongue Ratich began with 
the alphabet, calling attention to the form and the 
name of the letter as he drew it slowly on the black- 
board, and associated it with objects, as the o with a 
ring. The pupil was then required to draw the letter 
and name it. Any interesting book like Genesis was 
used to teach reading. The teacher read the book for 
the class, going over each chapter twice, the pupils 
following with eye and finger. Afterward each chap- 
ter was mastered separately, the teacher reading first 
and pupils next, each pupil reading four lines. When 
the children had learned to read, the study of gram- 
mar was begun. Here the parts of speech and all other 
lessons were taught by means of illustrations and skil- 
ful explanation. When Latin was taken up, grammar 
followed reading, as in the mother tongue, and the 
same methods were employed. In short, all instruc- 
tion was illustrative, or inductive. 

Principles. — Ratich governed himself and his as- 
sistants by maxims, or rules, which, as we must now 
admit, need only be brought into fuller harmony with 
psychology to make them safe rules for all time. 
Among them are the following: 

1. Follow the order of "nature." There is a natural 
sequence along which the mind moves in acquiring 
knowledge. The teacher should study this sequence, 
and base instruction on his knowledge of this sequence. 

2. In teaching any subject, keep at a thing until it 
sinks in and is thoroughly understood. This repeti- 
tion rule, so prominent in the pedagogy of the Jesuits, 
ends in deadening monotony, unless, as we know, the 
old and the new are so woven into each other that 
reason is kept even more busy than memory. Perhaps 



REALISM 271 

this is what Ratich had in mind when he proposed that 
nothing should be learned by heart, and nothing by- 
compulsion or constraint. 

3. In order that the attention of the learner may not 
be diverted by the language, "teach everything first 
in the mother tongue." In this maxim Ratich, like 
Mulcaster, put up a noble protest against the unnatural 
custom of Sturm and the Jesuits, and became the 
prophet of the future. 

4. We should proceed from one study to another 
by likeness of data, or as Ratich puts it himself, "uni- 
formity in all things." This was the secret upon 
which he relied in the Frankfort proposition to teach 
the languages in a shorter time. He saw what we see 
to-day, that whatever we know of any subject should 
be used in the acquisition of related subjects. 

5. We should always make sure that the thing we 
wish to teach is really understood before we attempt 
to teach its properties and accessories. We violate 
this very fundamental principle when we try to teach 
the names of the letters of the alphabet before the child 
knows the sounds for which they stand. 

6. We should oblige the pupil to learn all facts 
through his own examination of individuals, or cases, 
and all class-truths by comparison of cases, or induc- 
tion. This, as the reader will recognize, is Ratich's 
interpretation of Bacon's philosophy as applied to 
pedagogy, and is evidently an extreme position, for 
it would deny the educational value of all testimony 
and expert authority. 

Failure. — Ratich failed completely at Kothen, and 
later at Magdeburg, not because he was really on the 
wrong track, but for a number of reasons over which 



272 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

he had no control, and for other reasons. To begin 
with, he was too far ahead of the times in his ideas, 
and promised Prince Ludwig more than he could hope 
to accomplish in the time agreed upon. Then, too, 
he was wofully deficient in that good judgment which 
the head of a school needs in his dealings with colleagues 
and subordinates. 

Estimate. — ^Although Ratich failed in his efforts to 
organize schools, he paved the way for men like Co- 
menius and Pestalozzi, who avoided his extremes, and 
carried out with great skill those dreams of Ratich 
which rested upon solid foundations. All the hopes 
of sense-realism in education found in him a voice 
that commanded attention. 

COMENIUS 

I In John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) the pan- 
1 sophism of Bacon found its most ardent disciple and 
I sense-realism in education its ablest exponent. 
' Comenius (Komensky) was born in Moravia, Aus- 
tria. His parents, as he tells us, died when he was a 
child, and he was brought up by guardians in the sim- 
ple faith, earnest piety, and missionary zeal of the 
Moravian Brethren, a branch of Protestant Christi- 
anity. He received the meagre training in reading, 
writing, arithmetic, and the catechism which the schools 
of his times offered; but, for some reason or other, it 
was not until he was sixteen that he began to study 
Latin. He was then old enough to feel that there was 
something seriously wrong in the method of teaching 
Latin. 

At the college of Heiborn, where he began to study 



REALISM 273 

for the ministry, the cyclopaedist Alsted came into his 
life, and Ratich, with whose works he became ac- 
quainted, inspired him with the ambition of doing some- 
thing worth while on his own account. He completed 
his education at Heidelberg, and, being too young to 
preach, he taught school for four years, thus acquiring 
valuable preparatory experience. In 1616 he was or- 
dained to the Moravian ministry, and entered upon 
his duties at Fulneck. Here, in connection with his 
pastoral duties, he took charge of a school that had 
just been estabhshed, and began to think about edu- 
cational reforms. He had married, and for two years 
led an active and happy life, little dreaming that these 
years were to be his last in his native land. 

Untiring Activity. — The Thirty Years' War (1618- 
1648) laid its heavy hands upon his country. In 162 1 
the Spaniards plundered Fulneck, and Comenius lost 
all his property. "Instigated by the Jesuits, the Aus- 
trian Government proscribed the evangelical pastors, 
and forced them to flee. Comenius took refuge for a 
time in his native mountains, but, as persecution waxed 
hotter, he fled to Lissa, in Poland. On crossing the 
border he devoutly knelt and prayed God that the 
truth might not be quenched in his native land." 

'' Didactica Magna." — At Lissa he became identified 
with the Moravian Gymnasium, probably as rector. 
Thus favored in his ambition to do something for the 
cause of education, he took up the study of the best 
educational writers of his age. Ratich and Bacon ap- 
pealed to him especially, and inspired him to attempt 
something, as he himself puts it, "that might rest upon 
an immovable foundation." The result was his first 
great work, the "Didactica Magna," devoted, as the 



274 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

title suggests, to educational principles. Although this 
book was not published until long afterward, and even 
then attracted but little attention, it laid the founda- 
tions upon which he built his whole career, and antici- 
pated most of the great conclusions of modern peda- 
gogy. The book covers thirty-three chapters, in which 
he sets forth how schools could be founded "in all 
parishes, towns, and villages of every Christian king- 
dom, where the entire youth of both sexes, none being 
excepted, shall quickly, pleasantly, and thoroughly 
become learned in the sciences, pure in morals, trained 
to piety, and in this manner instructed in all things 
necessary for the present and for the future life." In 
other words, Comenius advocates (i) compulsory edu- 
cation (2) for both sexes, and (3) makes the govern- 
ment responsible for schools whose (4) purpose shall be 
intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of the 
individual (5) through courses and (6) methods (7) 
based upon the nature of the child and his needs both 
(8) in the present and the (9) future Hfe. 

"Jawwd." — In 1631 Comenius, to carry out his 
"Didactica Magna" in reforming the methods of teach- 
ing Latin, wrote a httle book which made him and the 
little Polish town where he lived known throughout 
Europe and beyond. He called it *'Janua Linguarum 
Reserata," or ''Gate of Tongues Unlocked," and, in 
order to grade the work, thus adapting it to the ca- 
pacity of the learners, he divided it into one hundred 
chapters. In order to carry out the sense-realism to 
which he was committed as unreservedly as Ratich be- 
fore him and Pestalozzi after him, and the pansophism 
for which he contended as valiantly as Bacon, he at- 
tempted to give the learner a survey of the whole field 



REALISM 275 

of knowledge in this little book. To this end, he built 
up the content of the chapters out of those actual or 
possible experiences of the learner which as types rep- 
resented the whole circle of knowledge, and in the 
same way, simply by connecting things and experi- 
ences with their proper names, he furnished the pupil 
•with eight thousand root-words or types of the Latin 
language in one thousand sentences. As he puts it 
himself: "I have classified the whole universe of things 
in a manner suited to the capacity of boys, and I have 
given the corresponding language." 

"The success of the 'Janua,'" as Painter writes, 
*'was instantaneous and immense. It was translated 
into Greek, Bohemian, Polish, German, Swedish, Bel- 
gian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, 
Turkish, Arabic, and one of the languages of India." 

Pansophia. — Comenius long had in mind "the pub- 
lication of a work that would embrace and fully ex- 
hibit the whole circle of knowledge." This would re- 
quire "the establishment of an institution in which all 
departments of learning should be represented by the 
ablest scholars, and from which this cyclopaedia of 
knowledge was to proceed." The plan reminds us 
strongly of "Solomon's House," the "research univer- 
sity" of Bacon's dream, "The New Atlantis." In 
1 641 the English Parliament, probably through the 
influence of his friend Samuel Hartlib, invited Comenius 
to London to consider the scheme. England, however, 
was on the verge of the Civil War of 1642, and Comenius 
was doomed to disappointment. He now thought of 
returning to Lissa, but just at this point a rich Dutch 
merchant, Lewis de Geer, invited him to Sweden and 
offered him not only a home, but means to carry out 



276 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

his plans. Soon after his arrival in Sweden the great 
Oxenstiern summoned him to Stockholm for a con- 
ference. 

"Methodus Novissima." — Oxenstiern and Chancellor 
Skyte of the Upsal University gave Comenius an op- 
portunity to explain his works and his plans, but ad- 
vised him to give up his pansophic scheme for the time 
being, in order that he might prepare a work in which 
his educational principles might be embodied more 
completely with reference to the teaching of languages. 
His friend De Geer made it possible for him to under- 
take this new task at Elbing, in Prussia, where he 
could reside among Moravian friends, exiles like him- 
self. Here after many interruptions and great trials 
he finally completed his "Methodus Linguarum No- 
vissima," the "Latest Method with Languages." In 
this work, which was really a revision of his "Janua," 
he took the greatest care to correlate things and words, 
harmonized the grading of the lessons more perfectly 
with the capacity of the learners, and attempted in 
a more thoroughgoing way to teach Latin grammar 
by the inductive or laboratory method. In the mean- 
time the Thirty Years' War had closed, and a commis- 
sion of learned Swedes had passed favorably on his 
book. The senior bishop of the Moravian Brethren 
died in 1648, and Comenius was chosen his successor. 
He now returned to Lissa, where his new book was 
published. 

"Orbis Pidus." — The "Novissima" added greatly to 
his fame as an educational reformer, and, although as 
bishop of his people he was weighed down with cares, 
he found time to accept a call to reform the schools 
of Transylvania. There was a settlement of banished 



REALISM 277 

Brethren at Patak, and here Comenius worked from 
1650 to 1654 in a school which was to be the model 
for the state. During this time he worked out a system 
of ingenious pictures with which to illustrate his 
"Janua," thus producing the "Orbis Pictus," or 
"World Illustrated," his most celebrated book. He 
sent it to Nuremberg, Germany, where it appeared in 

1657- 
Closing Years. — Comenius had returned to Lissa 

in 1654. Two years later the Poles plundered the town, 

and he lost his house and home and manuscripts. 

Escaping with his life, he was a homeless exile again 

until Lawrence de Geer, son of his old friend, offered 

him an asylum in Amsterdam, where he spent his last 

years, teaching for his maintenance, and publishing a 

complete edition of his works, of which there was a 

large number. He died in 1670, at the advanced age 

of eighty years, a venerable figure of sorrows. 

Principles. — There were very few phases of education 
that escaped the comprehensive mind of Comenius. 

Purpose. — The one all-embracing purpose of educa- 
tion, as Comenius saw it, was intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual self-development. In this self-development 
the individual was to attain to knowledge, virtue, and 
piety. It is plain to see that he reconciled the claims 
of the individual with all the claims of the social whole 
and God. 

Curriculum. — The curriculum should consist of the 
whole circle of knowledge. In other words, the course 
of study should be pansophic, or cyclopaedic. To read- 
ing and writing should be added the liberal arts, the 
sciences, the languages, morality, and piety. The 
child should touch all of these the first six years, and 



278 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

pass from the simple to the complex in three more 
stages of six years each, thus producing common schools 
for all boys and girls alike, followed by high schools 
for those who had the capacity and means, and univer- 
sities for the great professions. Women were to par- 
ticipate in these opportunities because they were hu- 
man beings, endowed with gifts and possibilities of the 
highest order. As stated in the title of the "Didactica 
Magna," the government was to make itself responsible 
for this very democratic system of schools, and the 
natural guardians of the child were to be compelled 
to send the. child to school. This is virtually our 
modern system of education. 

Methods. — In his schoolroom pedagogy Comenius 
was distinctly a Baconian sense-realist, beginning with 
the study of things and proceeding by induction. 
Things and words were to be taught together, in the 
mother tongue. The pupil was to learn other languages 
by "likeness of data" or, as we should say, by apper- 
ception. All rules were to be taught by means of 
examples and practice was to precede theory, the one 
leading to the other, and the two to go together. 

Estimate. — In his sense-realism Comenius went rather 
to extremes. After all, as Quick says, "our education 
must enable every child to enter in some measure upon 
his inheritance, and not a few of our most precious 
heirlooms will be found not only in scientific discoveries 
but also in those great works of literature which the 
votaries of science are apt to despise as miserable 
books." Professor Laurie says that Comenius "ac- 
cepted only in a half-hearted way the products of the 
genius of past ages." He substituted his "Janua" for 
Cicero and Vergil. 



REALISM 279 

Then, again, Comenius was altogether too much in- 
clined to judge the child's nature by that of birds and 
trees and seasons, thus "substituting for the nature of 
man nature without man." 

As we might have expected, his Latin schoolbooks 
failed because they were only "briefs" of the world 
and of language. He was wrong in thinking that man 
should know all things, and especially in the idea that 
this could be accomplished through briefs or "com- 
pends." 

Although in one place he says that it is certain that 
there can be nothing in the understanding that was not 
first in the senses, he saves himself from the perils of 
this extreme realism by assuming elsewhere that reason 
and revelation are also sources of knowledge. 

The one thing which he saw most clearly, and for 
which alone he deserves a high place in the history of 
education, is that "every human creature should be 
trained up to become a reasonable being, and that the 
training should be such as to draw out God-given 
faculties." 

LOCKE 

John Locke (163 2-1 704), the English philosopher, 
was a utilitarian sense-realist. 

In the Making. — He was born in a humble Wrington 
cottage of Somersetshire. While not wealthy, the 
Lockes were well descended. His father was a lawyer 
and served as captain in the Parliamentary army. The 
boy's education was carefully supervised. At the age 
of fourteen he was sent to Westminster School, a Puri- 
tan institution, for his preparatory course, and re- 
mained six years. Then he entered Christ Church 



280 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

College, Oxford. The intellectual and moral commo- 
tion through which Cromwellian England was passing 
must have stirred the soul of Locke, and he soon found 
himself at war with the antiquated humanism of 
Oxford, but finished his course regularly in 1656. He 
continued to reside at Oxford, and for brief periods 
was lecturer on Greek, rhetoric, and philosophy. 

Later, about 1658, perhaps because he was never 
very strong, he took up the study of medicine. In 
1667 he became an attache of Lord Shaftesbury's family, 
first as physician and later also as tutor of that noble- 
man's son and grandson. After the fall of Shaftesbury 
Locke fled to Holland, where he remained for six years, 
returning to England in 1689. In 1691 he was wel- 
comed into the home of Sir Francis Masham, where he 
lived the rest of his days. 

During his connection with Lord Shaftesbury Locke 
found himself much in company with the brightest men 
of his time. In easy circumstances, and relieved from 
the professional work which had hindered him in his 
pursuit of philosophy, he was now free to devote himself 
almost wholly to the gratification of his highest aspira- 
tions. Accordingly, he was a student most of his life, 
devoting himself especially to physics, chemistry, medi- 
cine, psychology, philosophy, politics, and even theology. 
*' Truth," as he found it first-hand — or tried to — by long 
and careful testing, was the passion of Locke's soul, 
and much of what, as tutor to "sons of gentlemen," he 
found worth while in education, is still worth while. 

Writings. — There was a close and stimulating in- 
tellectual sympathy between Lord Shaftesbury and 
Locke, and it was in Shaftesbury's house that Locke 
first planned his "Essay on Human Understanding," 



REALISM 281 

in which he sought after "the primal sources and the 
scope of human knowledge, denying the existence of 
innate ideas, presenting the mind as a sheet of white 
paper prepared to be written upon by experience which 
alone supplies the knowledge there impressed, and 
tracing the sources of all ideas to what he calls sen- 
sation and reflection." This psychological doctrine, 
known as the ''tabula rasa," or white paper, as the 
reader will recall, was also virtually the position of the 
sense-realist Comenius. Locke put much work on 
this "Essay" during his voluntary exile in Holland,'and 
published it in complete form in 1690. The applica-j 
tion of his sensation-psychology to the process of edu-i 
cation is to be found in a little book on the "Conduct 
of the Understanding," an original companion-piece 
to the "Essay," which was published after his death., 
In "Some Thoughts on Education," published in 1693,1 
Locke, as tutor of Lord Shaftesbury's son and grandson, 
applies his sense-reaUsm as a mental process to a utili- 
tarian curriculum specially selected for the "sons of 
gentlemen," thus running into a social realism that ; 
closely resembles that of Montaigne. Taking the two! 
books together, we venture to classify Locke as a utili- 
tarian sense-realist in his views on education. 

Educational Creed. — The opening sentence of 
Locke's "Thoughts on Education" is his educational 
creed, stated in the briefest possible way, and the rest 
of the book is simply an elaboration. These are hisi 
words: "A sound mind in a sound body is a short; 
but full description of a happy state in this world; he 
that has these two has little more to wish for, and he : 
that wants either of them will be but little the better j 
for anything else." I 



282 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Ends in View. — Locke evidently believed that the 
one all-comprehending purpose of education was the 
most perfect adjustment of body and soul, and that all 
else in the process and content of education was sim- 
ply the means to this adjustment. This adjustment 
coupHng physical soundness with moral soundness, 
as well as intellectual soundness of mind, would make 
all the relations of life, individual and social, both 
possible and highly worth while. 

Physical Culture. — As a physician who had become 
his own patient in his early manhood, Locke had learned 
to emphasize hygiene, and advocated what has since 
become known as the "hardening process." On this 
point he says: "The first thing to be taken care of is 
that he be not too warmly clad or covered, winter or 
summer. ... I should advise him to play in the 
wind and sun without a hat. His diet should be plain 
and simple. . . . Let his bed be hard, and rather 
quilts than feathers — hard lodging strengthens the 
parts." When we consider that, in the advocacy of 
these and other rules, Locke had not only himself but 
also his distinguished pupil in mind, we cannot but 
admire his courageous common sense, and this in spite 
of the fact that a too general application of some of 
his rules, such as exposure to wet feet, would end in. 
mischief. 

Character. — Much as Locke valued a sound body, 
he valued moral soundness more, placing it above all 
else. Speaking of the selection of the boy's tutor, he 
says: "Seek out somebody who may know how dis- 
creetly to frame his manners; place him in hands, where 
you may, as much as possible, secure his innocence, 
cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct and 



REALISM 283 

weed out all bad inclinations, and settle in him good 
habits. This is the main point; and, this being pro- 
vided for, learning may be had in the bargain." 

But, as in his views on physical culture, so in charac- 
ter building, the process was to be habituation, the 
indefatigable submission of inclinations to the contiol 
of reason, until reason becomes master of desires. On 
this point he writes in his ''Thoughts": "I would ad- i 
vise that, contrary to the ordinary way, children should 
be used to submit their desires, and go without their 
longings, even from their very cradles." "The great / 
principle and foundation of all virtue and worth is 1 
placed in this : That a man is able to deny himself his 1 
own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely ' 
follow what reason directs as best, though the appetite 
lean the other way." 

Unfortunately, "to follow what reason "directs as 
best" did not mean what we now mean by moral 
reason, or conscience, but rather what serves the pur- 
pose of success in life best. In a "gentleman's son" 
this rule would probably reduce moral motive to "sense 
of honor," or social advantage, or the "price" in politics. 
This is utilitarian realism with a vengeance. 

Intellect. — Independent as his "Essay" shows Locke 
to be in "thinking," he is powerfully influenced by 
utility. 

Curriculum. — In the curriculum which he recom- 
mends for the sons of gentlemen in his "Thoughts," he 
follows Milton and Montaigne very closely. The boy's 
intellectual education is to begin with such useful 
studies as reading, writing, and drawing in the vernac- 
ular. Arithmetic, geography, history, geometry, lan- 
guages, and other studies are to be added as the boy's 



284 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

life may require. He should also travel if possible, 
but under the supervision of a safe tutor. 

Teaching Process. — When dealing with the mental 
process of the learner, and the order in which the vari- 
ous subjects are to be mastered, Locke, as his "Con- 
duct" shows, and as his "Essay" would lead us to be- 
lieve, was as thoroughgoing a sense-realist as Bacon, 
Ratich, and Comenius. When, for example, the boy 
is able to take up a foreign language, it was to be the 
language of his neighbor — in the case of the English 
boy, French. This, as we recall, was the idea of 
Comenius. Latin might be studied after the neigh- 
boring language. Like Comenius, he would correlate 
content studies with the study of the languages. On 
this point he says: "At the same time that he is learn- 
ing French and Latin, he may also be entered in arith- 
metic, geography, history, etc. For if these be 
taught him in French or Latin, ... he will get a 
knowledge of ithese sciences, and the languages to boot." 
Greek might be taken up at leisure in the years of 
manhood. 

As we should expect from his "Essay," he distinctly 

I recommends in his "Conduct" that all instruction 

should take the form of direct observation followed by 

comparison or reflection. The learning process should 

, afford pleasure, thus serving as a stimulus; and mental 

' growth should be secured by adding something new to 

the old, or, as we should say, by apperception. All 

> these recommendations make Locke an advocate of 

child-study in the professional training of teachers. 

Formal Discipline. — According to Locke — and this 
point was long overlooked — the only "royal road" to 
human efficiency, whether of body or mind, is vigorous 



REALISM 285 

training, or, as we now say, "discipline." Hence he 
advocates the hardening process in physical culture, the 
rational mastery of desires in morals, and the gymnastic 
study of such subjects as languages and the mathe- 
matics for intellectual excellence. On this point he 
says in his " Conduct": "Would you have a man reason 
well, you must use him to it betimes, exercise his mind 
in observing the connection of ideas and following 
them in train. Nothing does this better than mathe- 
matics, which therefore I think should be taught all 
those who have the time and opportunity, not so much [ 
to make them mathematicians as to make them rea- 
sonable creatures, . . . that having got the way of 
reasoning which that study necessarily brings the mind 
to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of, 
knowledge as they shall have occasion." I 

His selection of subjects is evidently based on the' 
conviction that the efficiency which the body or mind 
acquires by exercise on subjects especially adapted to 
the purpose extends itself over a larger area than that 
to which the body or mind applied itself in particular. 
This doctrine of "formal discipline," or "educational/ 
gymnastics," became a great pet of psychology and 
pedagogy, but has lost much of its reputation by the 
contention of modern psychology that efficiency ad- 
quired in the mastery of any particular task or subject 
extends beyond that task or subject only to the extent 
that the task mastered is a type of the task in ques- 
tion. The doctrine of formal discipline has thus been 
largely displaced by that of "likeness of data," but 
psychologists like Angell and Judd show that the for- 
mer doctrine is not wholly " a myth," and that pedagogy 
must continue to distinguish between content studies 
and disciplinary studies. 



286 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

Estimate. — Although Locke spoke only for the "sons 
of gentlemen," and failed utterly to provide for the 
masses, he called the attention of the world to the 
importance of the practical in education as perhaps 
no one else had done before him, and he contended 
valiantly for an efficiency that can be attained only 
through hardness and difficulty, thus placing himself 
solidly against all softness and weakness. This posi- 
tion was both his glory and his shame, for the "heart" 
— the feelings — against which he fought, are God- 
given and indispensable to human happiness and hu- 
man power. 

He was read more on the Continent than in England, 
and such men as the brilliant Rousseau extended the 
English philosopher's influence to educational theory 
in general and to child-study in particular. His 
doctrine of "formal discipline," greatly modified, has 
come down, still powerful, to the twentieth century. 

INFLUENCE OF REALISM 

Realism left its impress, more or less permanently, 
on the general practice of education. 

Germany. — In Germany, where French court life 
began to be the passion of the nobility, academies for 
the nobles, called "Ritterakademien," sprang up toward 
the close of the sixteenth century. Here Latin gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and religion received much less atten- 
tion than in the humanistic gymnasiums, and the em- 
phasis was put on physical culture and accomplish- 
ments, together with modern languages, military sci- 
ence, and mathematics, thus adapting the content of 
education to the regime for which social realism con- 



REALISM 287 

tended, and after the Thirty Years' War these insti- 
tutions grew rapidly in number, although they were 
finally absorbed into the orthodox gymnasium system. 
Richelieu, the great prime minister of Louis XIV, 
established similar institutions, but they never rose 
to anything like importance. 

England. — When the Act of Uniformity (1662) 
closed the secondary schools and universities to dis- 
senters, and threw more than two thousand non- 
conformist clergymen out of their livings, some of 
these clergymen turned to teaching to support them- 
selves, and to supply the new needs of education. 
Thus sprang up "academies" patterned after the ideal 
of Milton's "Tractate." Inasmuch as the first purpose 
of these academies was to train ministers, Latin and 
Greek became the very backbone of the curriculum, 
but a programme of social realism consisting of mathe- 
matics, natural and social sciences, modern languages, 
and especially the mother tongue, was honored side 
by side with the main subjects. Locke's "Thoughts" 
(1693) added new impulse and content to these Puritan 
academies, and after the Act of Toleration (1689) they 
were regularly incorporated. 

America. — The first impulse that led to the found- 
ing of schools in the American colonies was the religious 
impulse, and it reproduced European humanism, but 
the programme of social realism and sense-realism 
eventually found favor and brought the Miltonian 
Academy. Franklin's Academy, in Philadelphia, Pa. 
(1751), estabhshed with the set purpose of preparing 
youth not merely for college, but for Hfe in a new 
country, ofifered courses in natural science, mathematics,- 
drawing, and English. Similar institutions were estab- 




288 raSTORY OF EDUCATION 

lished elsewhere, especially in the New England col- 
onies. The whole subject will come up for fuller dis- 
cussion in connection with education in the United 
States. 

REFERENCES 

I. Spofford's "Library of Historical Characters." 
a. Montagu's "Life of Bacon." 

3. Pattison's "Milton." 

4. Monroe's "Comenius." 

5. Courtney's "Locke." 

6. Quick's "Educational Reformers." 

7. Barnard's "German Teachers." 

8. Williams' " History of Modern Education." 

9. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

10. Graves' "History of Education," vol. III. 

II. Leitch's "Practical Educationists." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why did the popularity of humanism begin to wane in the 
seventeenth century? What new interest now took hold of 
Europe? For what curriculum, method, and discipline did 
realism call? 

2. Distinguish three kinds of educational realism from each 
other and account for their simultaneous presence. 

3. Discuss the productive impulse which realism gave to 
scientific research and literary activity. 

4. Account pretty fully for Rabelais's realism, and state as 
fully as possible the connection of ideas set forth in his books. 

5. Account pretty fully for Montaigne's realism and compare 
his connection of ideas with those of Rabelais. Measure the 
influence of both critics on current practice, and trace them 
as far as possible. 

6. Inquire as fully as possible into the reasons for the sense- 
realism of Mulcaster, and state as fully as possible the connection 
of ideas which he held on the purpose and means of education. 

7. Find the reason for Bacon's realism in the Elizabethan 
Age. What college reforms did he advocate in his books? 



REALISM 289 

8. State the connection of ideas which Bacon set forth in 
each of his famous books. What was Bacon's influence on his 
own times and future ages? 

9. Gather up the personal experiences and course of English 
events that helped to make Milton, and accoimt for his famous 
"Tractate." 

10. What significant words did Milton use in defining educa- 
tion? Why? Compare his ideas with those of Bacon on the 
purpose, curriculum, and methods of colleges. Compare his 
influence with that of Bacon. 

11. What right had Ratich to expect that Prince Maurice 
would respond to his appeals? What ambitious propositions 
did he then carry to Frankfort? Why did Prince Ludwig 
finally take him up? Explain his preparations for work, his 
inductive method, the principles upon which he foimded his 
labors, and his failure. 

12. How may we account for the pansophism and sense- 
realism of Comenius? Account for his presence at Lissa, and 
explain the books which he wrote there. What defeated his 
pansophic scheme in London and Stockholm? What was the 
relation of his "Methodus Novissima" and his "Orbis Pictus" 
to his "Janua"? State his views pretty fully, and estimate 
his greatness. 

13. Gather up the various educative experiences which helped 
to give Locke's realism such a practical turn. Account for his 
famous books. How far does modern psychology confirm his 
"tabula rasa" doctrine? State Locke's brief educational creed, 
and set forth as fully as possible his views on physical culture, 
character, course of studies, and languages. Explain his doc- 
trine of "formal discipline," and consult present-day psychology 
as to the correctness of his views. Which of Locke's conten- 
tions hold, and to what extent? 

14. What were the conspicuous fruits of reahsm in Germany, 
England, and America? 



PART V 

MODERN TIMES 

CHAPTER XV 

NATURALISM 

The many-sided mental emancipation which the 
Renaissance, and the Reformation as a child of the 
Renaissance, had promised was doomed to temporary 
defeat in the seventeenth century. This result came 
about through the repression into which Puritanism 
in England and America, Jansenism in France, and 
Pietism in Germany, had hardened. Thus two tyrants 
now reigned instead of one, namely, repression and 
formalism. The former forbade all spontaneity, the 
latter forbade originality. In the meantime, even the 
revolutions of 1649 ^^^ 1688 could not prevent the 
development of the covert and open absolutism of the 
Georges (1714-1830), and France continued to writhe 
in pain under the absolutism of the Bourbons, Louis 
XIV (1643-1715) and Louis XV (1715-1774), while 
Germany was slowly but surely being reduced to the 
absolutism of the Hohenzollern militarism (1640-1870). 

The realism of the seventeenth century, as we have 
seen, was an aristocratic protest of reason which suc- 
ceeded in spots but failed to make any deep impres- 
sion upon the general practice of education. 

The great revolt against all forms of repression began 
to fmd a voice in such men as Hobbes, Locke, Des- 

290 




Mann 



NATURALISM 291 

cartes, Voltaire, Kant, and others, but it was not until 
1750 that through the brilliant but erratic Rousseau 
and others this revolution became a wide-spread demo- 
cratic movement known as "naturalism." This eigh- 
teenth-century naturalism was, on the one hand, an 
aristocratic intellectualism — an appeal to pure reason 
instead of revelation — as in Voltaire and the French 
cyclop£edists, and, on the other hand, a popular emo- 
tionalism, as in Rousseau. When emotionalism tried 
to justify itself, it appealed to reason, and thus allied 
itself with the intellectual revolt. In education nat- 
uralism thus became a psychological movement of 
vast power, into which all previous reforms gradually 
merged, thus producing modern pedagogy and secular 
schools. 

ROUSSEAU 

Jean Jacques Rousseau (17 12-1778) was not only the 
eloquent exponent but also the extreme personification 
of eighteenth-century "naturalism." 

In the Making. — Rousseau was born in Geneva, 
Switzerland. He inherited the romantic and mer- 
curial temperament of his Parisian father, a watch- 
maker, and the morbid, sentimental disposition of his 
mother, a Protestant clergyman's daughter. The 
mother died at Jean Jacques's birth, and he was brought 
up by an indulgent aunt. When the boy was only 
six the father began to sit up with him night after night 
to read sentimental novels, a stock of which the mother 
had left, thus adding fire to the inherited emotionality 
and precocious imagination of the child. In little more 
than a year, when the novels had all been devoured, he 
turned to the more sensible library of his grandfather. 



292 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the clergyman. Here he found biographies like Plu- 
tarch's "Parallel Lives," and the standard histories of 
the times, which made a profound impression upon 
the boy, making him still more "impatient of restraint," 
as he afterward said, and waking in him the strong 
desire to champion the cause of the poor and oppressed. 

Jean Jacques was sent to school in a village just 
outside of Geneva, where he remained two years, and 
where his love of nature, already waked, became almost 
a passion. Returning to Geneva, he spent several 
years of his young boyhood in idleness and dreams, and 
then four years in unfortunate apprenticeships, and 
several more in menial service, never staying long any- 
where. During these unfortunate years, often sadly 
marred by passion and moral weakness, he lived much 
with nature, and became acquainted with the sorrows 
of the poor, but managed to obtain a little education 
here and there. 

At the age of nineteen, Madame de Warens took him 
into her home in Savoy, and he remained ten years, 
during which time he acquired some knowledge of 
Latin, music, science, and philosophy. Presently 
Rousseau drifted into Paris, where, as the result of a 
new and sorry attachment, some sense of responsibility 
began to develop in him in the necessary effort to earn 
a livelihood. 

It was the age of Louis XV. Life at the court was 
elaborately conventional, wholly artificial, and un- 
speakably dissolute. As a result the upper class of 
society everywhere became slave to a system of conduct 
and etiquette that was anything but natural. The com- 
mon people and peasants suffered every degradation. 
The air became thick with protest, and the conviction 



NATURALISM 293 

began to take shape that the only cure for the woes 
of the world was a "return to nature." It was in this 
atmosphere that Rousseau reached middle life. Every- 
thing in him — ancestry, experience, and education — 
conspired to make him the champion and personifica- 
tion of this return to nature for which there was such 
wide-spread and passionate longing. 

Writings. — The pent-up revolution in Rousseau's 
breast drove him to literary production, first as a 
mode of livelihood, and then, in passionate earnestness, 
as the advocate and exponent of revolution in society 
and education. He first leaped into fame through a 
prize essay on "The Progress of the Sciences and Arts," 
in which he tried to prove that progress in civilization 
was to blame for existing oppressions and corruptions. 
A similar essay on "The Origin of Inequality Among 
Men" followed in 1753. Presently, finding conven- 
tional Paris too oppressively artificial and repressive, 
he withdrew to the village of Montmorency, where, 
after a period of unpardonable lapses, he produced by 
1762 three books that startled France and Europe. 
The first of these was a novel, "The New Heloise," 
in which he pleaded for the primitive simplicity and 
peace of rural Ufe; the second was his essay on political 
ethics, the "Social Contract," in which he pleaded for 
an ideal state, in which government should be vested 
in the general will of the people; and the third, his 
famous novel "Emile," in which he advocated a system 
of education that would restore man to his proper 
place in nature. In his last years, when he began to 
look in upon himself, Rousseau became his own biog- 
grapher, morbidly revealing even the inmost secrets 
of his checkered career, but contributing a valuable 



294 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

treatise on introspective psychology at the same time. 
It is to his "Emile" that we must turn more specially. 

"Emile."— The great theme of this wonderful book 
is education "according to nature." Rousseau makes 
the announcement in the opening sentence: "Every- 
thing is good as it comes from the hands of the Author 
of nature; but everything degenerates in the hands of 
man." 

Assuming the truth of this statement, Rousseau 
contends that the child develops by stages; that we 
should permit the child to be himself as much as pos- 
sible in each stage of development, and that he should 
be brought up as far away from the contaminating in- 
fluence of conventional society as possible. The Emile 
of Rousseau's imagination is therefore brought up in 
the country, under the wise but negative supervision 
of a tutor, and his education is completed in four periods, 
to each of which a part of the book is devoted. A fifth 
book, or part, is devoted to the education of a wife for 
Emile. The "Emile" is a brilliant attack on the con- 
ventional repression and empty formality of education 
as Rousseau found it prevalent, and a powerful, though 
frequently foolish, plea for an education that should 
be natural and spontaneous. 

Infancy. — The first book of the "Emile" is devoted 
to the exposition of fundamentals, as just noticed, and 
to the education of Emile from his birth to the age of 
five years. In these first years nature wisely makes 
Emile the protege of his parents, and they should obey 
nature in providing Emile with wholesome food, plenty 
of play, fresh air, and sleep, and clothing that will not 
hamper free movement or growth. For much of this 
advice Rousseau is evidently indebted to Locke. 



NATURALISM 295 

Childhood. — From the age of five to twelve Emile 
will want to spend much of his time in outdoor life. 
Let him run, jump, climb, swim, shout, etc., to his 
heart's content. It is "nature" at work building the 
boy's body. Let him follow his own inclinations as 
much as possible in the acquisition of knowledge. 
Natural curiosity will teach him to use his senses and 
to use them to the best advantage in the development 
of his intellect and the acquisition of knowledge. He 
will discover, almost without his tutor's instructions, 
how to measure, weigh, and draw things, and how to 
help himself even in the dark. The intellectual devel- 
opment for which Emile is ready at this time of life 
is hindered rather than helped by instruction in read- 
ing, writing, history, and literature. The only moral 
instruction for which he is ready is that which he gets 
through the discipline of natural consequence, and, if 
left to himself, he will not even so much as ask if there 
be a God. 

The extremes to which Rousseau goes in these recom- 
mendations betray an astonishing ignorance of the 
facts in the case. 

Boyhood. — From the age of twelve to fifteen Emile's 
rapidly ripening intellect is ready for vigorous acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, but, apart from the benevolent 
guidance of a tutor, his progress will still be most satis- 
factory if he is permitted to follow the natural impulses 
of boyhood. The course of observations which Emile 
will have made by this time leads up to investigations 
and comparisons in the world of the senses. In other 
words, Emile is mentally ready for the study of nature 
and life as these present themselves to him through the 
senses or experience. Real experience will still serve 



296 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

his purposes better than books. Rousseau, however, 
makes one exception to this rule in favor of "Robinson 
Crusoe," which is to be the first book that Emile reads, 
because he finds ideal self-help in this hero. This book 
will give him "a knowledge of the natural needs of 
man, and of the means of providing for them, and is a 
fine incentive to participation in manual work. Emile, 
in fact, learns during this period the trade of cabinet- 
making — for its economic value in providing a liveli- 
hood, if necessary; for its social value in enhancing 
the dignity of labor; and for its educational value in 
developing skill and in keeping the body sufficiently 
exercised." 

In these recommendations, plausible as they look, 
Rousseau isolates science from the valuable support 
of literature and history as means to ends in the devel- 
opment of the intellect, and betrays a lamentable 
ignorance of books as tools. The stupidity with which 
he continues to outlaw morals and religion from the 
boy's life is little less than abominable. 

Youth. — Up to the age of fifteen Emile, according to 
Rousseau, has not been seriously conscious of human 
relationships. Now, however, he wakes up to this 
consciousness with something like a start, and for five 
years or more nature sends him to this school of human 
relationships, social and moral, with an imperative- 
ness that brooks no opposition. He will still need his 
benevolent tutor to guard him against the perils of 
society, but he must continue to learn by experience 
rather than from others, except in extreme cases. 
And now, according to Rousseau, Emile also discovers 
the presence of God in nature, and adds Him to his 
necessary relationships, but his need of God is rather 
one of heart than head. 



NATURALISM 297 

In this psychological analysis of youth Rousseau 
penetrates the very mysteries of adolescence at high 
tide, but fails entirely to understand that religion and 
morals are natural co-ordinates of all stages of normal 
mental development. 

Sophie. — The finale of Rousseau's **Emile" is the 
fifth book, which he devotes to the education of Sophie, 
Emile's "wife-to-be." According to Rousseau, Sophie 
exists only for Emile, and in education her individu- 
ality must be submerged into that of Emile. She is 
to grow up strong and robust, and must be taught 
singing, dancing, embroidery, and the like, in order to 
please Emile. Her education in religion and morals 
should begin early for the sake of her home. 

This part of Rousseau's "Emile" hardly deserves 
serious attention, and is so manifestly a violation of 
Rousseau's own proclamation of the rights of individu- 
ality that we can hardly forgive the effrontery. More- 
over, it betrays an unpardonable ignorance of woman 
as woman. 

Estimate. — In Rousseau's "Emile" the protests of 
reformers like Comenius, Montaigne, and especially 
Locke, against the tyranny of prescription in education 
became uncompromising revolution. He would boldly 
cut loose from all positive instruction and discipline, 
relying on nature instead of nurture, and rather on 
the child's impulses than on his reason as the true in- 
terpreter of his needs and destiny. 

The revolutionary courage of the book and the 
brilliancy of Rousseau's style, rather than the sanity 
and force of his contentions, compelled his readers to 
stop and think. And those who stopped to think saw 
that although Rousseau was not an expert guide him- 
self, he was looking for such a guide. In short, Rous- 



298 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

seau was the prophet who foresaw such reformers as 
Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart, who gave education 
its new bent toward a true psychology, science, and 
society. From his day down to the present pedagogy 
has emphasized the pupil rather than the curriculum, 
and nature rather than tradition in the curriculum, 
and, by rebound from Rousseau's "Emile," the phil- 
anthropic social aspects of education, applying these 
conclusions to boys and girls alike. 

France refused to take Rousseau's "Emile" seriously 
in educational practice. He had offended the state 
by his bold attacks on monarchy, and the church by 
his life and religion. It failed to make much of an 
impression upon the practical common sense of England. 
It remained for the German Basedow to found a school 
in which the "Emile" should be put to the actual test. 

BASEDOW 

Rousseau's "Emile" came into Basedow's life at 
the psychological moment, and thus made him its 
first great practical interpreter. 

In the Making. — Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723- 
1790) was the talented son of a Hamburg wigmaker. 
He refused to follow his father's vocation and ran 
away from home, attaching himself as servant to a 
gentleman in Holstein. This man soon discovered 
the remarkable ability of the boy, and persuaded his 
father to send him to school to the Hamburg Gym- 
nasium, where he came under the moulding influence 
of Reimarus. Presently friends entered him at the 
University of Leipzig for a course in theology, but, 
after a rather irregular life, and a serious lapse from 



NATURALISM 299 

trinitarianism to deism in religion, he left the univer- 
sity. 

In 1749 he became private tutor in Holstein to the 
children of Herr von Quaalen. It was with these aris- 
tocratic pupils that he first developed his famous 
methods of teaching through conversation and play, 
connecting instruction with surrounding objects in the 
house, garden, and fields. In less than four years his 
distinguished patron secured a professorship for him 
in the Ritterakademie at Soroe, Denmark, where he 
lectured for eight years, when the government, on ac- 
count of the serious offense which he gave by his writings 
on religion, was obliged to transfer him to the gym- 
nasium at Altona. 

It was at this juncture that Rousseau's "Emile" 
came into Basedow's life as a confirmation of his 
methods of thinking and teaching, and as an inspiration 
to a fuller development of his pedagogy. The times 
were ripe for just such a revolution in education as 
Basedow, inspired by the "Emile," was about to under- 
take. ''Youth," says Raumer, *'was in those days, 
for most children, a sadly harassed period. Instruc- 
tion was hard and heartlessly severe. Grammar was 
caned into the memory, so were portions of Scripture 
and poetry. A common school punishment was to 
learn by heart Psalm CXIX. Schoolrooms were dis- 
mally dark. No one conceived it possible that young 
children could find pleasure in any kind of work, 
or that they had eyes for aught besides reading and 
writing. The pernicious age of Louis XIV had in- 
flicted on the poor children of the upper class hair 
curled by the barber, and messed with powder and 
pomade, braided coats, knee-breeches, silk stockings. 



300 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and a dagger by the side — for active, lively children a 
perfect torture." In short, children were treated as 
miniature adults, and education was largely a matter 
of instruction in deportment. 

Winning Favor. — When, therefore, Basedow had 
explained his hopes and plans to Bernsdorf, the Danish 
minister of education, he was allowed to devote his 
whole energy to educational reforms. He began (1768) 
this work with an ''Address to Philanthropists and Men 
of Property on Schools and Studies and Their Influence 
on the Public Weal." In this address he appealed to 
them for money to help him publish the books which 
he had submitted in outline and to organize a school 
in which the new ideas might be put to the test. Prob- 
ably the most striking suggestions in the address were 
that the schools should be secularized and nationalized. 
At any rate, the response was prompt and gratifying. 
Money came to him from all classes of people and from 
many countries. The result was that in 1774 he was 
able to publish the books which he had planned. The 
first one, which he called "Elementary Work," was a 
text-book somewhat like the "Orbis Pictus" of Co- 
menius, which he had used with his private pupils, 
but powerfully modified by the naturalism of Rous- 
seau's "Emile," and the second book, called the "Book 
of Method," a manual for parents and teachers, in 
which Rousseau's natural method of learning everything 
by experience was advocated with great perseverance. 
Foreign languages, for example, were to be learned not 
through grammars but through conversation. 

The Philanthropinum. — Through his son's tutor, 
Behrisch, a friend of the poet Goethe, Prince Leopold 
of Dessau became so greatly interested in Basedow's 



NATURALISM 301 

plans that he determined to found an institute in which 
they should be put to the test. Accordingly, in 1774, 
Basedow was called to Dessau, and under his direction 
was opened the famous "Philanthropinum." "Then, 
for the first, and probably for the last, time," as Quick 
puts it, "a school was started in which use and want 
were entirely set aside." Everything was to be done 
''according to nature." Love of "human nature," 
as the name of the school implies, was to be the domi- 
nating purpose. 

Routine. — The school at Dessau was small, never 
numbering more than fifty children, but representing 
both the well-to-do and the poorer population of the 
neighborhood. They were dressed and groomed for 
comfort and freedom of movement. Much valuable 
instruction was imparted in connection with outdoor 
games and plays, and nature was wooed in trips that 
added much to child happiness. The language of the 
children was the language of instruction, but Latin and 
French were also taught. The natural method was 
employed, in connection with acting-games, pictures, 
drawing, and stories. Other studies, like geography, 
history, and arithmetic, were not slighted, and the 
methods employed resembled the language method. 
Every boy was taught such handicrafts as turning, 
planing, and carpentry; but, with some deference to 
social demands, the rich boy spent only two hours a 
day on these exercises, while the boy who must earn a 
living by work spent six hours on them. Nothing but 
"natural religion" was taught, the task of teaching 
revealed religion being referred to the home. 

Influence. — The number of pupils at Dessau was 
never large. Most of the visitors were pleased with 



302 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the interest and happy mood of the pupils. Even 
Kant, the Konigsberg philosopher, declared in 1777 
that the experiment was ''not a slow revolution," but 
an organization that by its very plan must "throw off 
all the faults" which adhered to its beginning. In this 
expectation, as it proved, he was disappointed, but he 
still believed that the experiment was worth while 
because it paved the way for better things. 

Basedow was in many ways quite unfit for his posi- 
tion, and soon lost it. Campe, who succeeded him, 
withdrew within a year and founded a similar school 
in Hamburg. Although the school at Dessau was 
closed in 1793, philanthropinums began to spring up 
all over Germany, and some of them had much influ- 
ence on educational practice in general. One of these 
was established at Schnepfenthal by Christian Salz- 
mann (i 744-181 1). This able man, whose school still 
lives, anticipated many of the reforms which Pesta- 
lozzi afterward introduced into primary education. 
These philanthropinums, together with the attractive 
literature which Basedow's followers produced, carried 
the new ideas into all parts of Germany and Switzer- 
land, where they became the inspiration of Pestalozzi, 
Froebel, and Herbart. "Hence," as Doctor Graves 
says, "despite his visionary disposition, his intemper- 
ance, and his irregularity of living, the reformer who 
first attempted to embody the valuable aspects of 
Rousseau's naturalism in the education of Germany 
was Basedow, rather than Pestalozzi, who afterward 
transformed it so much more successfully." 

One result of the naturalism introduced into educa- 
tion by Rousseau could hardly have been anticipated 
by himself in his fury nor by his biassed immediate 



NATURALISM 303 

followers. The rationalistic contemporaries of Rous- 
seau — men like Hume and Voltaire — were intellectual 
anarchists. Their antisocial philosophy imperilled the 
whole social structure. Rousseau's naturalism, op- 
posed to the intellectual aristocracy of rationalism, 
nevertheless also exalted the individual perilously above 
social control, and both movements tended to impover- 
ish the conception of God's moral and eternal suprem- 
acy. Reaction was bound to follow such manifestly 
perilous extremes, and thus the final result of this 
double blow at higher claims was a new and more per- 
fect adjustment of all claims in educational theory and 
practice. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

3. Guizot's "History of Civilization." 

4. Quick's "Educational Reformers." 

5. Compayre's "History of Education." 

6. Graves' "History of Education," vol. III. 

7. Morley's " Life of Rousseau." 

8. Davidson's "Rousseau." 

9. Lang's "Basedow." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Into what revolt of reason and emotion did realism grow 
when individuality was curbed not only by institutional repres- 
sion and formalism but also by heartless absolutism? 

2. Outline the personal experiences and events of the times 
that contributed to make Rousseau the living embodiment of 
"naturalism." 

3. How did Rousseau come to write his most celebrated books, 
and for what did he contend in each? 

4. What is the great theme of his "Emile," and how far is 
the naturalism which he advocates confirmed or condemned 
by modern psychology and the teaching of Christ? 



304 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

5. Account for the furor which Rousseau's books produced, 
and the condemnation of his books on many sides. 

6. Why, in spite of its very serious psychological and soci- 
ological errors, is Rousseau's "Emile" one of the most notable 
contributions to the cause of education? 

7. At what critical moment in Basedow's life did the "Emile" 
fall into his hands, and what hopes did it inspire in him under 
the conditions of his times? 

8. What patronage enabled Basedow to undertake the writing 
of pedagogical books, and what were his most striking sugges- 
tions ? 

9. How did Prince Leopold come to Basedow's assistance, 
and how were things done in the school at Dessau? What did 
Kant think of Basedow? Why did Basedow fail? Was his 
failure the end of such experiments as his philanthropinum? 

10. What was there in the naturalism which prompted all 
such experiments that imperilled the whole social structure? 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 

The great theme of all Rousseau's contentions was 
the unrestricted (natural) self-development of the in- 
dividual through self-activity. The new conception 
of education destroyed the long-lived despotism of the 
older conception of education as nurture (prescription 
and restriction). These two ideas, as we have seen, 
have always been contending with each other for the 
upper hand, and Rousseau was only another eloquent 
voice to whom the world was inclined to listen, first 
because he was so eloquent, and second because the 
things against which he lifted his voice had become 
crime against the child. His eloquence inspired a 
number of gifted spirits with the consuming desire to 
study the nature of the child, and thus to psychologize 
education. Pestalozzi, with whom child-study was a 
by-product, paved the way; Herbart, who purposely 
studied the mind of the child at work, developed child- 
study into a science; and Froebel, as if by divine in- 
junction, carried this science into the ''holy of holies" 
of childhood. Thus, for the first time in the history 
of education "elementary education supplanted sec- 
ondary education as the chief concern of those engaged 
in either the theory or the practice of education." 

PESTALOZZI 

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) was the 
Christian interpreter of Rousseau's naturalistic philan- 
thropinism. 

305 



306 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

In the Making. — Pestalozzi was born in the beauti- 
ful town of Zurich, Switzerland. His father, a very 
intelligent physician, died before the boy was six years 
old, leaving hira to the care of his mother. He was 
"a mother's boy," and, under the quiet piety of his 
mother's house, he unfolded into a shy and dreamy 
boy, almost a stranger to children of his own age. 

Accordingly, when he first came to school, the chil- 
dren dubbed the awkward and dreamy but good- 
natured youngster "Harry Queer of Follyville." While 
trying to compete with his mates both in study and 
play, he was always ready to do them a good turn, 
and everybody loved him. 

In due time his mother was able to send him to the 
university of his native town, where he gave a satis- 
factory account of himself and also became identified 
with a society of young Swiss patriots whose leading 
spirit was Lavater, and through which connections he 
offended the government. 

Pestalozzi loved his grandfather, a minister, at whose 
home he was always welcome, and where he learned 
much about the sorrows of the poor and what a good 
man could do to alleviate their sufferings. As a result, 
he prepared himself for the ministry; but, breaking 
down in his first sermon, he concluded that he was not 
naturally fitted for this sacred office. 

Afterward, in order that he might plead the cause of 
the poor Swiss in another capacity, he studied law; 
but, influenced by Rousseau's "Emile," he turned to 
farming, hoping to show the Swiss peasants how to 
improve their condition, and dreaming at the same 
time of improving his own fortunes. Accordingly, he 
studied agriculture for a year in the neighborhood of 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 307 

Berne, under a man who had become famous for his 
innovations. In the meantime, however, he had won 
the heart of beautiful Anna Shultess, daughter of a 
Zurich merchant, and they were married in 1769, from 
which time to the end of her life she continued to be 
his faithful and inspiring helpmate. 

Neuhof. — He now took up a hundred acres of un- 
cultivated land near Birr, built a house on it, and called 
it "Neuhof" (new farm), and moved into it with Anna. 
In spite of his good ideas and industry, the venture 
was not profitable, and the bankers who had advanced 
him money to promote the experiment withdrew their 
support. 

In the meantime, before he had any doubt about 
his success as a farmer, Pestalozzi began to reproach 
himself for having been side-tracked from his great 
purpose to live for his beloved Swiss people. The 
more he thought about the matter, the more convinced 
he became that education must be the means to his 
ends. The birth of a son quickened his reflections, 
and, as he tells us in his "Journal of a Father," he soon 
realized that as an educational ideal Rousseau's natu- 
ralism must be greatly modified. He began to see 
what Rousseau had failed to see, namely, that home 
and love are nature's best safeguard and stimulus to 
necessary moral self-respect and self-support, and there- 
fore indispensable to the best possibilities in the child's 
education. 

Accordingly in 1775, by the help of his good wife's 
money, he undertook to convert Neuhof into an in- 
dustrial school. He began by inviting twenty of the 
poorest boys and girls of the neighborhood, giving them 
a home, food, clothing, and love. The plan was to 



308 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

connect Instruction in reading, writing, reckoning, and 
Bible lessons with work on the farm. In bad weather 
both boys and girls learned to spin and weave. He 
hoped that the work of the children would help him 
to make ends meet, and thus serve the double purpose 
of education and living. The children improved rapidly 
in body and mind, and he took in about thirty more 
children; but the work done by them, as was to be 
expected, was quite wasteful, and this, together with 
the suspicion of the parents that Pestalozzi was profit- 
ing at the expense of the children, defeated his noble 
purpose, and he was obliged to give up the experiment 
in 1780, heavily involved in debt. 

A Soul Waiting. — The time of trial had come for 
Pestalozzi. The Neuhof house continued to be his 
home, but poverty would often stare at him through 
the windows, and his soul was sometimes on the verge 
of despair. Devoted to the great purpose of social 
reform through education, he took to writing books 
and pamphlets which embodied his principles, relying 
upon the meagre income of his writings as a means of 
livelihood. A year had not passed when his first book, 
"The Evening Hour of a Hermit," came from the press; 
but, although the work was a pretty complete state- 
ment of the great principles to which he had become 
wedded, it attracted little or no attention. His friends 
now urged him to put his thoughts into popular form. 
The result was his famous "Leonard and Gertrude" 
in 1 78 1, which he finished in an amazingly short time, 
writing between the lines of an old account-book. His 
friend Iselin published the book, and he found him- 
self suddenly the idol of all who could read German, 
for he had succeeded in depicting with sympathy and 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 309 

love the sorrows of his people, and pointed out the 
cure. The story describes the degraded social condi- 
tions of Bonnal, an imaginary Swiss village, and the 
changes which one simple peasant woman brought 
about. The name of this wonder-worker was Gertrude. 
"She reforms her drunkard husband, educates her 
children, and causes the whole community to adopt her 
methods." The schoolmaster who presently arrives 
learns from her how to conduct the village school. 
Even the village pastor also catches her spirit and em- 
bodies her counsel in his. The government finally 
becomes interested and concludes that Bonnal should 
become the model for the whole country. The popu- 
larity of his "Leonard and Gertrude" prompted him 
to add new parts, but never with much success. In 
spite of the fact that he had become so famous, and 
knew so many famous men, among them Goethe, 
Herder, and Fichte, and his name had been mentioned 
in France with those of Wilberforce, Kosciusko, and 
Washington, he and his family were often without food 
and fire at Neuhof. 

Stanz. — In 1798 Switzerland was overrun by the 
French, everything was remodelled after the French 
pattern, and Switzerland became a "republic" with 
"directors." Pestalozzi set to work to serve the new 
government with his pen. The directors were pleased, 
and when they asked him what they could do for him, 
he told them very simply that what he wanted most 
was to be a schoolmaster. When some Swiss communi- 
ties refused to follow the French lead, French troops 
were let loose, and the city of Stanz on Lake Lucerne 
was terribly devastated. It became the duty of the 
directors to come to the rescue of the unfortunates, 



310 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

among them one hundred and sixty-nine orphans. 
The directors thought of Pestalozzi and sent him to 
take charge of the children, giving him an unfinished 
convent for the "home," and here in January, 1799, he 
housed himself and about forty children. "The diffi- 
culties were immense. At first Pestalozzi and all the 
children were shut up day and night in a single room." 
Under these conditions he could do little else but look 
after immediate physical necessities, and try to com- 
fort the children in their plight. They did not always 
understand him, but he gradually won them and the 
distrustful community by sheer love and faithfulness. 
As the weeks passed into months, and the number of 
children in his care increased to seventy or more, they 
learned not only to call him "father," but peace and 
friendship sprang up among the children themselves. 
Pestalozzi knew how to utilize the whole life of the 
school to secure these results. As at Neuhof, he tried 
to connect study with manual labor, the school with the 
workshop, and to make them one thing, but he found 
it difficult because staff, materials, and tools were 
wanting. In the absence of school apparatus and 
books he resorted much to direct observation, availing 
himself skilfully of any objects within reach, including 
nature as he found it out-of-doors. Thus, while he 
sought to teach reading, writing, numbers, drawing, 
and natural history, he had come to see the greater 
importance of a full and varied mental development 
through suitable sense-activity, attention, and judg- 
ment. Under his love and psychologic insight the 
children were becoming new creatures in body, char- 
acter, and intellect. 

With still greater success in sight, Pestalozzi was dis- 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 311 

mayed to find in June, 1799, that the French soldiers, 
after a brush with the Austrians, required the use of 
his buildings as a hospital, and his complete abandon- 
ment of the school. Nevertheless, it was none too soon, 
for Pestalozzi found himself on the verge of physical 
collapse from the long strain, and recovered only after 
resting in the mountains. 

Burgdorf. — Pestalozzi's sun was not to set so soon. 
Friends came to his rescue, and through them he was 
employed by the town of Burgdorf as assistant teacher 
in a school of which the shoemaker happened to be 
the head. Unfortunately, Pestalozzi's methods were 
too new, and he lost his position. 

His friends, however, were wiser than the shoemaker, 
and through their influence he became the teacher of 
some twenty-five beginners in the burgher school. 
Here he was allowed to have his own way. He made 
all instruction start from what pupils observed for 
themselves, and with his wonderful insight into chil- 
dren and their ways, he produced such fine results in 
language, numbers, drawing, history, geography, and 
the mood of the pupils that the Burgdorf School Com- 
mission complimented him publicly. Thereupon he 
was promoted and put in charge of about seventy 
children, ranging from ten to sixteen years of age. 
With these older pupils and larger number he did not 
get along so well. Just at this juncture, when he had 
come to the conclusion that the art of teaching should 
consist of "putting the child's impressions into con- 
nection and harmony with the precise degree of devel- 
opment" which the child had reached, Pestalozzi's 
friends secured for him the use of part of the old Burg- 
dorf castle, and its gardens. The government had also 



312 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

invited some thirty children from Appenzell and their 
young teacher, Kruesi, into the castle. Presently 
Pestalozzi was able to associate Kruesi and three or 
four other bright young teachers with himself. This 
was the beginning of his famous ''Institute," or train- 
ing-school for teachers. The school was maintained 
by voluntary subscriptions and some support from the 
government, and both day-school pupils and boarders 
were received. There never was room for more than 
about one hi;ndred. 

It was under these more favorable conditions that 
Pestalozzi worked out the full significance of the use 
of objects in the teaching of language, numbers, nature, 
and other school subjects, and in 1801 he embodied 
his conclusions in a book almost as well known as his 
"Leonard and Gertrude," giving it the title of "How 
Gertrude Teaches Her Children," and consisting of 
letters to a friend, describing his educational principles. 
The Institute attracted attention far and wide as a 
successful experiment in reforming elementary educa- 
tion. In 1805 the restoration of cantonal government 
and the need of the building for ofiicial purposes com- 
pelled Pestalozzi to move. 

Yverdun. — He was forced to migrate to an old con- 
vent near Berne. Close by was Hofwyl, where Fellen- 
berg had established an agricultural school on his large 
estate, to carry out Pestalozzi's "Neuhof" dream. 
Kruesi and the other teachers of Pestalozzi, recognizing 
that Fellenberg had as great a gift for administration 
as Pestalozzi had for action, thought it would be better 
to merge the two schools, and to submit to Fellenberg 
as responsible head. This arrangement, however, 
could not last long, for, although Pestalozai yielded. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 313 

he soon fretted under the *'man of iron," and withdrew, 
settling himself in the castle of Yverdun, near Lake 
Neuch£ltel. Within a year his old assistants followed 
him, and thus arose, in 1805, a still more famous train- 
ing-school for teachers. 

For some years the success of this school was prodig- 
ious. "Object teaching" became a passion, and was 
applied with great success to all the elementary sub- 
jects. Text-books organizing the content of the vari- 
ous subjects were compiled, and young men came from 
everywhere, either of their own accord or sent by their 
governments, to learn Pestalozzi's methods and to catch 
his inspiration. Among these promising young men 
were Karl Ritter, who thus became the "father of 
physical geography"; Herbart, who became the scien- 
tific exponent of child-study, and Froebel, the founder 
of the kindergarten. For five years or more this 
"community" of pupils and teachers under "Father 
Pestalozzi" was a veritable paradise, but in time dis- 
sensions began to creep into the school, thus diminish- 
ing the efficiency of the movement, and gradually 
destroying the personal ascendancy of Pestalozzi, un- 
til at last, through the evil genius of one of the teach- 
ers, the school lost its prestige and patronage to such 
a degree that it had to be closed, and Pestalozzi 
went sadly back to Neuhof, where he died two years 
later. 

Estimate. — Inspired by Comenius and Rousseau, 
Pestalozzi became their eloquent interpreter through 
his wonderful love for children and his equally wonder- 
ful insight into their nature. That there were short- 
comings even he himself recognized with chagrin and 
grief, but his lofty faith and his sublime courage in the 



314 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

face of poverty, adversity, and cruel defeat will for- 
ever command admiration. 

Principles. — (i) The motive of all Pestalozzi's en- 
deavors was to reform the social whole through uni- 
versal education. The masses at the bottom of the 
social whole were to be educated not only because it 
is best for the classes higher up, but especially also 
because such redemption is the inherent right of every 
human being. 

(2) In the accomplishment of this high and holy 
purpose the method of instruction and the means em- 
ployed must be adjusted to the "natural, progressive, 
and harmonious development of the individual." Ac- 
cordingly, all instruction must begin with direct ob- 
servation, making it possible to proceed from the 
concrete to the abstract, from the particular to the 
general, and from the simple to the complex. 

(3) While Pestalozzi, like Comenius, assumed that 
sense-perceptions are the first steps to knowledge, and 
therefore that observation is the basis of instruction, 
he was not satisfied with the knowledge gained by 
observation unless expression (language) kept pace 
with impression (ideas) in the power gained through 
observation. This, as we note, was going a good deal 
beyond Comenius, who, in the use which he made of 
objects in teaching, apparently thought only of the 
knowledge to be acquired. 

(4) In the determination to grade instruction, or 
adapt the materials of instruction, that is, the objects 
selected, to the progressive development of the child, 
Pestalozzi undertook to find the natural "ABC of 
observation" for every school subject, especially for 
number-work, geography, language, and drawing. In 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 315 

other words, he tried to analyze these subjects into their 
elements, in order that the learning process in each 
study might be synthetic, which he believed to be the 
natural process of learning. This extreme position 
led him to overemphasize oral work at the expense of 
written number-work, and artificial synthesis of ele- 
ments in reading and drawing over the more natural 
correlation of these steps. Nevertheless, he correctly 
began with "home" geography and worked outward 
toward "globe" geography as we do to-day. 

(5) Pestalozzi's tender home-relations as a boy and 
as a man constrained him to believe that a similar re- 
lation should exist between teacher and pupils. And 
his conviction that mental development was the pur- 
pose of education confirmed his natural inclination to 
deal thoughtfully and kindly with his pupils, even if 
on occasion such kindliness had to give way to punish- 
ments for moral reasons. He certainly secured mar- 
vellous results. He literally turned the schoolroom 
into a place of Joy instead of the place of terror which 
the nondescript schoolmasters of his day and other 
days had generally made of it under still more non- 
descript physical and moral conditions. Inasmuch as 
the feelings are the springs of action, Pestalozzi's re- 
spect for the pupil's individuaUty must forever be the 
ideal key to success in building the religious and moral 
character of boys and girls, and thus making this the 
supreme end in view in education, higher in importance 
beyond all measure than mere instruction or even 
development of intellect. 

Spread of Pestalozzianism. — When Pestalozzi was 
placed in charge of the orphans at Stanz in 1798, he 
could not go back to the ideal of juvenile reform 



316 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

through industrial education to which he had devoted 
himself so largely at Neuhof, but he made every effort 
to psychologize the methods of teaching the usual 
school subjects, and continued to do so at Burgdorf 
and Yverdun. 

Fellenberg. — In the meantime, however, Emmanuel 
von Fellenberg (1771-1844), a man of noble and wealthy 
parentage, had become wholly possessed with the idea 
that the wretched condition of the Swiss peasantry 
could be improved through the kind of education which 
Pestalozzi had tried at Neuhof. When Pestalozzi had 
to give up his school at Burgdorf in 1804, he and Fel- 
lenberg formed a partnership near Berne, but soon 
separated with mutual good-will, Pestalozzi establish- 
ing himself at Yverdun, and Fellenberg at Hofwyl, 
near Berne. 

Fellenberg's fundamental purpose was to combine 
industrial education— chiefly agricultural — with the 
elements of intellectual education, and thus to meet 
the pressing needs of the masses. Presently he added 
a "literary institute" for the sons of wealthy land- 
owners, where the ordinary classical education was 
supplemented by physical culture and enough farm 
labor to produce a sympathetic understanding of the 
masses and their needs. Various practical accessories 
were added, such as a printing establishment, and even 
a school for girls was organized. A special effort was 
made to prepare teachers for the country schools. 
Fellenberg's idea — Pestalozzian industrialism as an 
integral part of education — has spread all over the 
world, and is pressing its claims with ever-increasing 
insistency not only upon Switzerland, its place of birth, 
but upon Germany, France, England, and America. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 317 

Psychological Pedagogy. — The psychological move- 
ment inaugurated by Pestalozzi and so powerfully 
pressed by his disciples, especially by Herbart and 
Froebel, and as fundamentally inspired by Rousseau's 
naturalism, is gaining an ever-increasing momentum in 
the training of teachers, and the sense-realism to which 
this movement contributed through "object-lessons," 
as first emphasized by such innovators as Comenius, 
has eventuated into the very promising nature-study 
of the present century. Germany, France, England, 
and the United States have vied with each other to be 
first and foremost in this psychological movement and 
its associated science movement. Among the fore- 
most promoters of Pestalozzianism, as it comes to us 
through its Prussian garb, were Horace Mann in his 
(1843) seventh "Annual Report," Henry Barnard in 
his publications as commissioner of education, and 
Edward Sheldon in his "Oswego Movement" in i860. 
This latter was a special "object-lesson" movement, 
and received the indorsement of the National Educa- 
tional Association in 1865. 

HERBART 

Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) made a sci- 
entific study of the mind at work, and thus laid the 
foundation of modern scientific pedagogy. 

In the Making. — Herbart was born in Oldenburg, 
Germany. The father was a scholarly public official, 
and the mother a woman of great intelligence, who 
watched over the education of her son with special 
care. Presently a tutor was employed, and the boy 
early showed much aptness in Greek, mathematics. 



318 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

and metaphysics. He completed the gymnasium course 
at Oldenburg in six years, and then entered the Univer- 
sity of Jena in 1794, where he became a pupil of the 
inspiring Fichte, and remained three years. 

Tutor. — He left before graduating in order to become 
the private tutor of the three sons of the governor of 
Interlaken, Switzerland. It was stipulated that Her- 
bart should give the father written reports of the prog- 
ress of his sons, and it was probably due to this require- 
ment that he became a skilful observer of the mind at 
work. 

Visits Pestalozzi. — While thus engaged for three 
years in Switzerland he became much interested in 
Pestalozzi, whose Burgdorf Institute he visited, and 
then wrote a sympathetic account of his observations. 
It is evident that his connection with Pestalozzi led 
to Herbart's determination to study the mental proc- 
ess more completely in the interests of scientific peda- 
gogy- 

At Konigsherg. — In 1809, after a successful career 

of several years at Gottingen as private tutor and writer, 
he became Kant's successor at Konigsberg, a place 
of opportunity over which his mind long lingered as 
"in reverential dreams," and where he remained a quar- 
ter of a century. Here in connection with his chair of 
philosophy he founded in 18 10 a pedagogical seminary, 
or normal school, for advanced students in pedagogical 
problems, and he added a practice school which pro- 
vided actual experience in teaching as well as oppor- 
tunities for pedagogical experiments. He himself 
taught classes in the practice school, and had his stu- 
dents observe, until presently they could take up the 
work where he had begun, and give instruction under 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 319 

his direct observation. This was the forerunner of 
"model schools" and "critic teachers" in our modern 
normal schools. 

Publications. — Herbart embodied the conclusions at 
which he arrived through his study of the mind in 
several important volumes, especially his "Science of 
Education" and his "Outlines of Educational Doc- 
trine." 

Herbart's Pedagogy. — The distinct features of Her- 
bart's pedagogy may be conveniently set forth under 
special paragraphs. 

Ends of Education. — Assuming that morality (the 
right and the good), mounting in its highest ascent to 
God, must be regarded as the highest purpose of man, 
the child of God, and that, as Spencer so eloquently 
contended just a quarter of a century later (i860), edu- 
cation must be defined as "preparation for complete 
living," Herbart held that this godlike morality, or holi- 
ness, must be regarded as the ultimate, or highest, 
object of education. Accordingly, the mediate ob- 
jects of education must be knowledge of God, faith in 
God, and love to Him as final springs of action, or char- 
acter, and holiness as fruit. 

Curriculum. — Assuming that God reveals himself to 
man through "nature" and through "man" himself, 
Herbart held that the natural sciences perfected by 
mathematics, together with the social, or historical, 
sciences, consisting fundamentally of language, litera- 
ture, and history, must constitute the essential cur- 
riculum, or trunk line, of education. In this "twofold 
ascent" to God and holiness, it is the special function 
of mathematics as the science of exactitudes to enable 
the sciences of nature to reveal God as infinite power, 



320 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and the function of history and literature as portraits 
of human achievements and human aspirations to 
reveal man as the child of God, and thus the object of 
His love. This discovered love of God to man would 
supply the final motive of moral conduct and make 
for holiness (the "good" will). 

In Herbart's scheme the great fact of social relation 
(relation between man and man) is duly emphasized, 
while individuality is exalted by the recognition of 
divine origin, and God is glorified by the most ennobling 
service on the part of his children. 

Method. — According to Herbart this twofold ascent 
to God and holiness made psychological pedagogy the 
great necessity, and this conclusion, indeed, is his most 
important contribution to education. ''For my part," 
said he, "I have devoted every energy for twenty 
years to metaphysics, mathematics, self-contempla- 
tion, experiments, and trials, in order to find the basis 
of true psychological insight. And the prime motive 
of these laborious investigations was, and is, above all, 
my conviction that a large part in the huge gaps in 
our pedagogical science proceeds from a lack of psy- 
chology, and that we must first have this science, yea, 
must beforehand get rid of the mirage called psychology, 
before we can determine with some degree of certainty 
what is right and what is wrong in a single hour of in- 
struction." 

Apperception. — Herbart agreed with Pestalozzi that 
instruction must begin in sense-perceptions, but real- 
ized what Pestalozzi had failed to realize, at least in a 
scientific way, how the mind itself combines, relates, 
and elaborates successive acquisitions. In other words, 
he saw that instruction should be the process of causing 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 32 1 

thought which awakes right motives, and thus leads to 
right action as its sequence. Accordingly, in order to 
produce a "many-sidedness of interest," or, as we should 
say, that many-sidedness of "motive" which leads to 
the many-sidedness of "action" for which the many 
relations of man to man, and of man to God, constantly 
call, the school curriculum must be put together by 
"apperception," that is, the subjects and the lessons 
must be brought into such relation to each other as to 
help the mind classify, or identify, every new experience 
with all that is already known and that bears upon the 
new. This process of "mental preparedness" for each 
new step in the acquisition of knowledge, as Herbart 
believed, and as modern psychology shows, wakes up 
interest, and thus leads to that pleasurable mental 
effort which is indispensable to mental growth. Such 
apperceptive correlation of subjects and lessons, aim- 
ing at mental growth through the selective content of 
the curriculum as well as through the naturalness of 
the apperceptive process, has rightly been called "edu- 
cative instruction" by Doctor Eckhoff, and has be- 
come one of the great watchwords of modern education. 
Five Formal Steps. — Later Herbartians, assuming 
that the learning process consists essentially of per- 
ception and apperception, have tried to reduce all com- 
plete instruction on any subject to five formal steps, 
namely, preparation, presentation, association, classi- 
fication, and application. If, for example, we should 
wish to teach case in grammar, the teacher will recall 
previous lessons on subjects, ownership words, and ob- 
jects of a sentence (preparation), and then get the class 
to see that this difference of word-functions in a sen- 
tence is denoted by spelling, or form, and name this 



322 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

difference of form "case" (presentation). A number 
of examples, or illustrations, may now be compared 
with the first illustrations (association). This com- 
parison is induction, and should lead to definition 
(classification). The use which the learner will make 
of his new concept is deduction (application). 

It is true that this outline, or "form" of instruction, 
may become pedagogical idolatry, but it is difficult to 
avoid the conclusion that the steps in question are 
really the natural steps of the mind at work in any 
complete lesson. 

Influeuce. — The first great advocates of Herbartian- 
ism in Germany were Professors Stoy, at Jena, and 
Ziller, at Leipzig. 

Ziller— In 1865 Tuiskon Ziller (181 7-1883) published 
his conclusions in a volume entitled "The Basis of the 
Doctrine of Instruction as a Moral Force." He based 
the selection and sequence of subjects and lessons on 
what has become known as the "recapitulation" 
theory in biology, assuming that the mind, like the 
body, repeats the stages of evolution in the species. 
In this attempt he made literature and history the 
core of instruction through the first eight grades of 
school, very much in the same way that Herbart had 
done in secondary education. This "recapitulative" 
or "culture-epoch" application of apperceptive corre- 
lation is known as "concentration." 

Rein. — William Rein (1847), ^ pupil of both Stoy 
and Ziller, on becoming the head of the pedagogical 
seminary at Jena in 1865, mapped out a curriculum 
for the first eight grades of school with startling suc- 
cess, thus making Jena the great centre of Herbartian- 
ism, from which it spread as far as the United States, 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 323 

where its influence has been enlarged especially through 
the writings of De Garmo and the McMurrys. 

Herbartianism has succeeded in giving history and 
literature a very high place in our school curriculum, 
and it has stimulated the great educational bodies to 
pay much attention to the scientific correlation of 
school subjects in general. It would, indeed, be diffi- 
cult to overestimate the "scientific good" which has 
come into pedagogy through the psychological re- 
searches of Herbart and his many able disciples. 

FROEBEL 

The psychological movement which began in the 
naturalism of Rousseau and found its intuitional in- 
terpretation in Pestalozzi and its scientific develop- 
ment in Herbart, reached the crest of the wave in 
Froebel, the spiritual successor of Pestalozzi and the 
founder of the kindergarten. 

In the Making. — Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel 
(i 782-1852) was born in Oberweisbach, a village in the 
beautiful Thuringian Forest of Germany. His father, 
the pastor of six village congregations, could give very 
little time to the boy's education. The boy was only 
a year old when he lost a good mother, and the step- 
mother who came into his life cared little for him. 
As a result he spent most of his time up to the age of 
ten years in the woods, with birds and flowers as com- 
panions, and received very little other training. From 
this passage in his life Froebel later concluded that the 
child's first teacher should be a loving, sympathetic 
mother. 

At the age of ten he went to live with his maternal 



324 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

uncle, who sent him to school for four years. His 
first day in this school was a great event. The chil- 
dren repeated the familiar Scripture verse "Seek ye 
first the kingdom of God." "This verse," as Froebel 
tells about it himself forty years later, "made an im- 
pression on me Hke nothing before or since." He 
learned the usual elementary subjects, together with 
a little Latin. But the teacher could do little with 
the dreamy boy, and called him lazy. From this ex- 
perience Froebel afterward drew the conclusion that 
what a boy needs most when he first comes to school 
is a teacher who knows boys. 

At the age of fourteen he was taken home, and soon 
afterward apprenticed for three years to a forester. 
He was now in his element, and, although the forester 
himself could help him very httle, the boy had plenty 
of time, which he utilized in the study of languages, 
mathematics, and botany, but gave himself up mostly 
to a deep and intimate communion with nature — 
especially trees and plants. 

"When he left the forest at the age of seventeen he 
seems to have been possessed with the main ideas 
which influenced him all his life. The conception which 
in him dominated all others was the unity of nature, 
and he longed to study natural sciences that he might 
find in them various applications of nature's universal 
laws. With great difficulty he got leave to join his 
elder brother at the University of Jena, and there for 
a year he went from lecture-room to lecture-room, 
hoping to grasp that connection of the sciences which 
had for him far more attraction than any particular 
science in itself." It was here, too, that he came under 
the spiritual influence of Fichte and Schelling. But 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 325 

the boy's allowance of money was small, and before he 
understood what was happening, he was put into the 
college prison for nine weeks for a small debt, contracted 
chiefly by his brother. After this sore trial he returned 
to his father, who now tried to interest him in farming. 
The failing health of his father brought the son home 
again, and when the father died, in 1802, the son, now 
twenty years old, began to shift for himself. In the 
effort to make ends meet he tried a number of things, 
but, although "he became more and more conscious 
that a great task lay before him for the good of hu- 
manity," he could not find himself. 

At Frankfort. — In 1805 he came to Frankfort with 
the intention of studying architecture. Here he be- 
came acquainted with Doctor Anton Griiner, head of 
a Pestalozzian model school, who recognized the talent 
of the young man and persuaded him to become a 
teacher in his institution. It was thus that he finally 
found himself. "It seemed," says he, "as if I had 
found something I had never known, but always 
longed for, always missed; as if my life had at last 
discovered its native element. I felt as happy as the 
fish in the water, the bird in the air." He now read 
Pestalozzi's books and began to make experiments on 
motor-expression as a method of teaching, and he soon 
met with much success. 

At Yverdun. — Having made up his mind to devote 
himself to teaching, but recognizing how little he knew 
and how poorly prepared he was, Froebel gave up his 
place in Doctor Griiner 's school in 1808, and went to 
Pestalozzi's normal school at Yverdun, taking with 
him three pupils, who should be under his own care 
while he himself would study under Pestalozzi. "Thus 



326 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

it happened," he says, "that I was there both as teacher 
and scholar, educator and pupil. In order to be fully 
and perfectly placed in the midst and heart of Pesta- 
lozzi's work, I wished to reside with my pupils in the 
building of the institution, in the castle, so called. 
We wished to share everything with the rest; but this 
wish was not granted us, for strange selfishness inter- 
fered. Yet I soon came to dwell as near the institution 
as possible, so that we shared dinner, afternoon lunch 
and supper, the instruction adapted to us, and the 
whole life of the pupils. I for myself had nothing more 
serious to do than to allow my pupils to take a full 
share of that life, strengthening spirit and body. With 
this aim we shared all instruction, and it was a special 
care to me to talk with Pestalozzi on every subject 
from its first point of connection, to learn to know it 
from its foundation." Froebel remained two years, 
acquiring much valuable training in music, nature- 
study, and the use of objects in teaching, but becoming 
interested above everything else in the study of self- 
expression in play as nature's way to self-development. 

Further Preparations. — In order to discover for him- 
self how "nature and man, inasmuch as they proceed 
from the same source, must be governed by the same 
laws," and thus help to explain each other, Froebel 
longed for deeper knowledge of the sciences, and accord- 
ingly spent the next two years (1810-1812) at the 
universities of Gottingen and Berlin. 

In 1 8 13, as the student of history will recall, Prussia 
in company with other countries took part in the "war 
of liberation" against Napoleon, and thus it came to 
pass that Froebel, though not a Prussian himself, be- 
came a soldier. He now learned what perhaps he might 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 327 

have missed in its most emphatic values, "how the 
individual belongs not to himself but to the whole 
body, and how the whole body supports the individual." 
This lesson saved Froebel from the extreme naturalism 
of Rousseau as portrayed in his "Emile," and taught 
him the importance of co-operation as a natural means 
in self-development through self-activity. 

It was also during this passage in the making of 
Froebel that he fell in with two much younger men, 
Middendorf and Langenthal, whom he attached to 
himself in wonderful intimacy, and whom he presently 
called to help him in his educational experiments. 

At Keilhau. — When the war was fully over — for he 
had kept his holy mission unfalteringly before him — 
Froebel looked about for an opportunity and found it. 
In 1816 he undertook the education of five nephews, 
with whom as pupils he founded a school at Griesheim, 
but moved it to Keilhau in 18 17, and called upon his 
friends Middendorf and Langenthal to help him. It 
was to be an experiment in self-development through 
socialized self-activity. In the play life to which 
Froebel reduced much of the school process, the chil- 
dren built dams and mills, fortresses and castles, and 
hunted for insects, birds, animals, and flowers in the 
woods. Sometimes this free self-activity took the 
form of work in the garden about the schoolhouse, or 
useful activities in the building itself. In 1826, in 
order to popularize his institute, for the number of 
pupils was never very large, he published his famous 
"Education of Man," an explanatory account of his 
educational practice at Keilhau. 

In spite of the pedagogic success of his Keilhau ex- 
periment, Froebel could not make it pay, and had to 



328 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

leave the school in charge of Barop and his two earlier 
friends, while he himself accepted a number of teach- 
ing positions in succession in Switzerland, the most 
important of these being at Burgdorf, where Pesta- 
lozzi had worked before him, and where in addition 
to his own labors as a teacher of children he organized 
a teachers' class to study his theories. He was warmly 
supported in this attempt, and the Swiss teachers 
remain true to him to-day. 

The Kindergarten: Blankenburg. — While at Burg- 
dorf, a friend had called Froebel's attention to the 
writings of Comenius. The "school of the mother's 
knee" as portrayed by Comenius made a deep im- 
pression on Froebel, and he slowly came to the con- 
clusion that the educational reform most needed was 
for children before the usual school age. It was with 
this idea in his mind that he returned to Keilhau and 
in 1837 founded a "school for little children" in the 
neighboring town of Blankenburg. In 1840, after 
long pondering, he finally hit upon the beautiful and 
suitable name of "kindergarten" for his school. 

Although the school had to be closed presently, 
Froebel, faithful to the cause of childhood, devoted the 
rest of his life to writing pamphlets and delivering lec- 
tures on his kindergarten ideals, to the better selection 
of kindergarten materials, and to the training of young 
women for the work of teaching in kindergartens. 
Unfortunately, the Prussian Government, confusing 
his teaching with the revolutionary doctrines of his 
nephew Karl Froebel, prohibited the establishment of 
kindergartens in 185 1. This blow probably shortened 
his life, for he died the next year. The order was not 
revoked until i860, nor has the Prussian state officially 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 329 

recognized the kindergarten up to this day, although 
private kindergartens are no longer prohibited. Now 
that the world knows the full length to which autoc- 
racy may go in its determination to crush democracy, 
it also knows why Prussia would not tolerate such exal- 
tation of the individual as Froebel's ideals contemplate. 
It is through the Baroness Bertha von Biilow, as much 
as through himself, that Froebel's kindergarten Hves 
and that it has accomplished so much for education. 

Principles. — As the interpreter of his illustrious fore- 
runners, Froebel made several very distinct contri- 
butions to the cause of education. 

Development as Aim. — Like Rousseau, with whose 
naturalism the psychological movement began, Froebel 
advocated "education according to nature," thus as- 
suming that education must have for its primary pur- 
pose the natural development of the individual, the 
evolution of inborn capacities and powers; but his 
deep-seated conviction that God reveals himself to the 
individual through nature, and that the outline of the 
course of human development in accordance with 
divine purpose must be kept clearly before the mind 
of the teacher, lifts Froebel God-high above the ex- 
tremes of Rousseau's naturalism, and ranges him with 
Richter, Kant, and Herbart as the champions of em- 
phasis on the religious and moral side of human 
development. 

Method of Development. — Froebel, like Rousseau, rec- 
ognized that the satisfaction and pleasure which activ- 
ity, or motor-expression, affords the child is nature's 
own best stimulus to self-activity, and that accordingly 
the activities through which we hope to develop, or 
educate, the child must be as largely self-determined 



330 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

as possible. The play of children is evidently nature's 
first provision for their education. 

Realizing as he did that the child by nature acquires 
an astonishing amount of knowledge through effort 
put forth to satisfy his desires, Froebel came to the con- 
clusion that the sense-perceptions upon which Pesta- 
lozzi based all instruction acquire full efficiency only 
through the correlation of expressive action with ac- 
quisitive action, and that the effort to express knowl- 
edge should consist not only of words but also of such 
actions as gestures, songs, and material constructions. 
In other words, we must not only require the learner 
to prove by doing, and to put into use acquired knowl- 
edge, as the Herbartians do in the fifth step of instruc- 
tion, but also perfect the learning process through do- 
ing, and so much so that the learning process consists 
more largely of doing than of anything else, for this is 
nature's own best way. 

Participation.— Froebel rises immeasurably above 
Rousseau in the realization that the nature of the 
child calls for co-operative action rather than for isola- 
tion of the individual, that there is really a mechanism 
of instincts which calls for such social participation, 
and that the highest physical, moral, and intellectual 
development are definitely dependent upon such par- 
ticipation. In this conviction Froebel is as much of a 
psychologist as Aristotle and as human in his sympa- 
thies with childhood as Pestalozzi, his great pattern. 

Embodiment. — The kindergarten at Blankenburg was 
Froebel's embodiment of his principles of education. 
The means which he organized to carry out his pur- 
poses are "Mother Play and Nursery Songs," the 
"gifts," and the "occupations." "The [fifty] songs 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 331 

describe simple nursery games like hide-and-seek, or 
the imitation of some trade like the carpenter's," and 
are accompanied by pictures and explanatory notes. 
The "gifts" consist of materials that attract attention 
and the desire to use them, namely, the sphere, cube, 
cylinder, sticks, tablets, etc., while the "occupations" 
consist of materials that are capable of transformation 
in use, like sand, clay, paper, cardboard, etc. The 
plays to which the use of the gifts and occupations 
lead become miniature social and moral exercises as 
well as highly effective intellectual operations. The 
modern organization of the kindergarten emphasizes 
the occupations above the gifts, since the former 
afford a better selection of materials and activities. 
In the actual conduct of kindergarten activities, songs, 
gesture, and constructions are correlated as much as 
possible. 

Froebel's Infiuence.^^— It is really' difficult to give 
proper credit to reformers such as Rousseau, Pesta- 
lozzi, Herbart, and Froebel because such credit belongs 
to them jointly. 

Play. — Froebel's principles of education as embodied 
in the kindergarten, supported by "the new psychology 
which predicates feeling and action as primary ele- 
ments of mind, and intellect as a product of their in- 
teraction," has compelled a general reorganization of ed- 
ucation not only in primary schools but also in secondary 
and higher institutions, in all of which play has be- 
come an integral portion of the curriculum, and the 
hope of social and moral as well as of physical reform. 

The Hand in Education. — Rousseau advocated hand- 
work, and wanted everybody to learn a trade, but for 
social and economic reasons. Pestalozzi endeavored 



332 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to heighten the efficiency of sense-perception through 
industrial occupation, but with instruction rather than 
development as the end in view. Froebel, differing 
from both in purpose, advocated hand-work for its 
cultural value, or for the increase of mental power 
which it was to produce. It was with this end in view 
that he had proposed to establish a manual-training 
school at Helba, Germany. This idea of correlating 
hand-work with head-work as practised in the kinder- 
garten was the definite beginning of the numerous 
schemes of manual training that have become integral 
in the educational systems of Europe, America, and 
elsewhere in the world. 

Kindergartens. — Through Baroness Bertha von 
Biilow kindergarten ideals and methods have largely 
modified the "infant schools" of France and England, 
which, up to the middle of the nineteenth century, 
were only day-nurseries for the children of parents 
hard pressed by economic conditions. Through Doctor 
William T, Harris, until lately United States Commis- 
sioner of Education, who gave the kindergarten a 
place in the St. Louis schools, and through Miss Susan 
Blow, who seconded his efforts, and established a 
training-school for kindergartners in St. Louis, kinder- 
gartens have become a part of the educational scheme 
in the United States. This result was greatly hastened 
and enlarged by Miss Elizabeth Peabody, of Boston, 
Mass., who opened the first kindergarten for English- 
speaking children in i860. 

General Infiltration. — The whole scheme of modern 
education has become infiltrated with Froebelianism. 
This is particularly true of America. Among the men 
to whom special credit is due for these results is Colonel 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 333 

Francis W. Parker (1837-1902), principal of the Cook 
County Normal School, Illinois, who introduced the 
Pestalozzian method of teaching geography and the 
Herbartian idea of concentrating the curriculum about 
a central study, in this case geography, and who in- 
sisted in season and out of season on Froebelian motor- 
expression and social participation as the best means 
in the development of thinking power and character. 
Undoubtedly Doctor John Dewey's "new psychology" 
has greatly added to the power of the general psychologi- 
cal movement in pedagogy. 

Estimate. — The psychological movement beginning 
in Rousseau's extreme naturalism was generally fortu- 
nate in its interpreters, for through them the pendulum 
was swung back from emotional to institutional in- 
dividualism, and although the stress which these in- 
terpreters have put upon method has often hardened 
into formaHsm and soft pedagogy, there is now no real 
conflict between the claims of the social whole and the 
individual on the one side, or between both of these 
and the higher claims of God on the other side. 



REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Lord's "Beacon Lights of History." 

3. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

4. Quick's "Educational Reformers." 

5. Graves' " Great Educators of Three Centuries." 

6. Barnard's " German Teachers." 

7. Krusi's "Pestalozzi." 

8. Pestalozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude." 

9. Barnard's "Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism." 

10. Parker's "History of Modern Elementary Education." 

11. Williams' "History of Modern Education." 



334 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

12. Kriege's "Friedrich Froebel." 

13. Froebel's "Education of Man." 

14. De Garmo's "Herbart and the Herbartians." 

15. Lange's "Apperception." 



QUESTIONS 

1. What two contending ideas came into sharp collision 
through Rousseau, and what did Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Froe- 
bel contribute to the new movement? 

2. What were the educative influences which help to account 
for Pestalozzi 's philanthropinism ? 

3. Account fully for his presence at Neuhof, Stanz, Burgdorf, 
and Yverdun, and examine his achievements in these situations 
very carefvilly. 

4. State fully the great principles of Pestalozzianism, and bring 
each one to the test of psychology and sociology. 

5. Account for Fellenberg and examine his Pestalozzian ex- 
periment at Hofwyl. What does the world owe Fellenberg? 

6. Which movements inspired by Rousseau and inaugurated by 
Pestalozzi have acquired great momentum ? Where ? Through 
whom? With what results? 

7. What were the educative opportunities of Herbart before 
he became a tutor himself ? How did his career as a tutor con- 
tribute to his future? How did Pestalozzi contribute to the 
same result? 

8. Account for his presence at Konigsberg, and explain his 
work there. 

9. Explain the twofold ascent which Herbart proposed, and 
judge the fitness of this scheme as means to end. 

10. Account for the laborious investigations carried on so 
many years. At what important conclusions regarding the con- 
struction of a curriculum did he thus arrive? Why was Doctor 
Eckhoff right in calling Herbart's "apperceptive" correlation 
"educative instruction"? 

11. Explain the formal steps to which later Herbartians have 
tried to reduce all complete instruction. 

12. Explain the contributions of the Herbartians Ziller and 
Rein to the cause of pedagogy. To what extent has their at- 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 335 

tempt to reconcile the requirements of apperception with bi- 
ological recapitulation succeeded in practice? 

13. Place Froebel with the other great contributors to the 
psychological movement. 

14. For which of his views do his home, early school-days, life 
in the forest, and his experience as a soldier, account ? Through 
whom did he discover himself and what does he owe to Pes- 
talozzi? What holy mission had he proposed to himself and 
what higher knowledge did he seek? 

15. Describe the activities of Froebel and his associates at 
Keilhau, and his subsequent trials. Why did he return to 
Keilhau in 1837, and what does the world owe to him as a 
consequence? 

16. Account psychologically and historically for the attitude 
of Prussia toward Froebel's kindergarten. 

17. What did Froebel believe to be the ends in view in educa- 
tion, and how were these ends to be attained? Examine his 
ideas on "motor-expression" and "social participation" in the 
light of present knowledge. 

18. What were the "gifts" and "occupations" which Froebel 
used in his kindergarten, and to what extent have they stood 
the test ? 

19. Describe the place "play" has come to have through Froe- 
bel's influence. 

20. What, according to Froebel, is the function of the hand 
in education? Compare these views with those of Rousseau, 
Pestalozzi, and later thinkers. 

21. Trace the spread of Froebelianism into the twentieth 
century, and give proper credit to its celebrated interpreters. 

22. To what extent has Froebelianism justified itself? Con- 
sult the last chapter for help in your decision. 



CHAPTER XVII 
PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 

THE SOCIALIZING MOVEMENTS 

The wars through which the English Stuarts and 
the French Bourbons finally lost their thrones, and 
through which other powers contended for political 
supremacy, as in the rise of the Hohenzollerns, reduced 
large portions of the social whole to helpless conditions 
of poverty, hopelessness, and vice. 

Philanthropy. — Although in this course of events 
the church suffered much herself and lost much of 
her teaching and alleviating power, she still continued 
to be the hope of the hopeless. The principle of the 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man con- 
tinued to have power enough to produce individuals 
and associations that were ready to make themselves 
the responsible stewards of the less fortunate classes. 
This spirit of philanthropy sometimes manifested it- 
self in men who were not wholly in sympathy with 
orthodox Christianity, as in the case of Rousseau, but 
is seen to the best advantage in such devoted Chris- 
tians as Pestalozzi. The general outcome in the last 
part of the eighteenth and the first half of the nine- 
teenth century was rescue movements of large pro- 
portions — noble efforts to make the helpless classes 
beneficiaries of education and of all the good things 
that come through education. Thus arose charity 

336 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 337 

schools for the poor, Sunday-schools for the moral up- 
lift of the ignorant, infant schools for children who 
through the pitiless industrial conditions would other- 
wise have become a burden to themselves and the 
social whole, schools for moral delinquents and mental 
defectives, and by and by, as in America, schools for 
dispossessed Indians and emancipated slaves. 

While it is true enough that the philanthropists 
could not cope successfully with all the actual needs 
of the century in question, their experiments in time 
induced the state, as the only social whole powerful 
enough to achieve success, to make itself the respon- 
sible steward of all classes. 

Patriotism. — The century of European revolutions, 
covering more than the last half of the eighteenth and 
more than the first half of the nineteenth, left a num- 
ber of great monarchs securely in possession of their 
thrones, while the rest were either compelled to com- 
promise with their subjects or to bow to defeat, thus 
making democracy possible. All these political move- 
ments, powerfully affecting social wholes, called for 
.educational systems that would foster patriotism and 
produce efiiciency. 

In some cases, conspicuously in Prussia, the Hohen- 
zollerns succeeded not only in making absolutism toler- 
able but even acceptable. This was accomplished 
primarily through the creation of a powerful standing 
army, making territorial conquest and defense against 
encroachment possible, and thus producing a strong 
feeling of nationality; but these far-sighted and am- 
bitious sovereigns early realized that absolutism can- 
not be made permanently acceptable to the social 
whole by anything less than the general uplift of the 



338 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

social whole, and that the best means to this end was 
free, compulsory, and universal education, which, 
through its beneficence, would in time produce personal 
attachment to the rulers and thus conserve their am- 
bitious sovereignty through genuine patriotism. 

Eflaciency. — The creation and maintenance of mili- 
tarism, defensive and offensive, in European nations, 
called for general efficiency as well as for patriotism. 
The systems of education which would serve as means 
to the ends must therefore train the social whole not 
only for patriotic citizenship, whether it be in king- 
doms and empires, or in self-governing republics like 
France, and in such constitutional monarchies as Eng- 
land and Italy, but also for competitive efficiencies 
that would make national existence safe and prosperous 
in times of peace as well as in times of war. 

Such competitive efficiency can come only through 
systems of education in which the curriculum, the 
teaching forces, and all pedagogical equipment are 
subsidized to the ends in view. To support the 
crowded populations of European countries the edu- 
cational curriculum must include scientific agriculture, 
forestry, mining, etc. The movement of the rural 
population to the cities through such inventions as 
the steam-engine, the cotton-gin, etc., calls for voca- 
tional education. In the interest of national wealth 
and competitive superiority stress must be laid on the 
training of engineering experts, industrial experts, and 
commercial experts. Continuation schools must fol- 
low the boys and girls into their vocations. In mon- 
archies, military and professional training must be 
jealously guarded as the prerogatives of the ruling 
houses. In order that education may have the valu- 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 339 

able quality of efficiency, the teaching forces must be 
professionally trained. The highly complex organiza- 
tion which has become more and more necessary in 
the adjustment of educational means to educational 
ends has given rise to a number of strongly centralized 
national systems of education. 

GERMANY 

The German states, gradually grouping themselves 
around Prussia as the political nucleus, have all be- 
come affiliated with her in educational matters, so 
that we should begin with Prussia in order that through 
her systems as a type we may obtain a definite gen- 
eral view of the German system as a whole. 

The HohenzoUerns. — The Hohenzollerns, who ac- 
cepted the Reformation of the sixteenth century with 
its philanthropic interests, saw from the beginning, so 
it now appears, that these philanthropic interests would 
sooner or later become a serious menace to Hohenzol- 
lern political ambition, and that therefore the social 
whole must be weaned from control by the church to 
control by the state, and that this must be accomplished 
through education. While, therefore, in order to at- 
tach the social whole to themselves, the Hohenzollerns 
inaugurated and furthered social-welfare movements 
through education, they contrived to make each new 
reform a stepping-stone to greater political power. 

Frederick William I. — The first efficiency move of 
this sort was made by Frederick William I in 171 7. 
In that year he issued a decree requiring parents to 
send their children to elementary schools. Nor did 
he stop at that, but even devoted state funds to the 



340 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

establishment of rural schools, and when he found it 
difficult to secure intelligent teachers, he founded the 
first training-school for teachers. It was located at 
Stettin. None of these efforts betrayed any open op- 
position to the church as a teaching force. 

Frederick the Great. — His son, Frederick the Great 
(i 740-1 786), was an enlightened despot who saw that 
the more he could do for the general uplift of his peo- 
ple the more efficient a tool they would be in his 
hands in the achievement of his ambitions. He there- 
fore made many economic and social reforms that 
looked to the advancement of the social whole, and 
gave much attention to educational reforms. He im- 
proved the secondary schools, granted academic free- 
dom in universities, and established an academy of 
science in Berlin, and, by leaving the administration 
of the schools in the hands of the clergy, he accustomed 
them to submit to state control without alienating 
them from his cause. His great contribution to the 
cause of elementary education was the general school 
regulations which he issued in 1763. In this code 
(i) school attendance was made compulsory from the 
age of five years to thirteen for those who could pass 
the state tests, and fourteen for those who were less 
fortunate. (2) No one was allowed to teach school 
without being examined and licensed by a local in- 
spector and preacher. (3) And the schoolmaster was 
required to give part of his Sunday to teach young 
unmarried people who were beyond the school age. 

Frederick William II. — It was the cherished hope of 
Baron von Sedhtz, the educational adviser of Frederick 
the Great, to improve the administration of schools by 
creating a central board, thus disposing of the local 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 341 

church consistories and their freedom from state con- 
trol. The new board was to consist of lay members. 
Frederick William II established a central board in 
1787, but, finding it either inopportune or impossible 
to defy the church and her traditional prestige, he re- 
fused to go the whole length of substituting lay ex- 
perts for churchmen in the membership of this board, 
nor did he extend the jurisdiction of the central board 
to higher education. 

In the meantime the scholars and Jurists whom 
Frederick the Great had appointed to codify Prussian 
laws completed their work. This was in 1794. *'The 
twelfth chapter of laws" was devoted to education. 
The advocates of supreme control by the state had 
triumphed. It was now openly asserted that "all 
schools and universities are state institutions, which 
may be founded only with the knowledge and consent 
of the state; they are under the supervision of the 
state and at all times subject to its examination and 
inspection." The code also provided for compulsory 
attendance and the appointment of teachers by the 
state. Religious instruction was not to be eliminated 
from the schools, but, with this one concession to com- 
fort her for her loss of power, the church was hence- 
forth to surrender all administrative function to the 
state. The social whole, moved by traditional sym- 
pathy, and tacitly encouraged by the clergy, was sure 
to resent the new order of things, and this resentment 
was not mollified by the corrupt and selfish adminis- 
tration to which the people were subjected by the min- 
ions of the king. 

Rude Awakening. — In 1806, as we should recall at 
this point, Napoleon humbled Prussia at Jena. Ruler 



342 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and people were suddenly face to face with stern reali- 
ties. Reforms of every sort were instituted. The 
great men with whom Frederick William II now sur- 
rounded himself saw that what Prussia needed most was 
an educational system that would produce intelligent 
patriotism. This was the psychological moment. The 
social whole, together with the church, would now be 
ready enough to submit gracefully to any system of 
centralization in school administration. The central 
administration was created within the Department of 
the Interior and the illustrious Wilhelm von Hum- 
boldt was placed in charge. He inaugurated reforms 
in elementary, secondary, and higher education that 
went far toward the eventual completion of a state 
system that would serve the ambition of the Hohen- 
zollerns. In 1809 the University of Berlin was founded, 
and, through the eminent scholars invited as teachers, 
it soon became, what it has long continued to be, a 
great research university. In 181 2 the classical high 
schools, which fell in line with the curriculum pre- 
scribed by the state, including emphasis on Greek and 
mathematics, thus preparing for admission to the uni- 
versities, took their definite place in the educational 
system specially planned for the training of civil-ser- 
vice experts, and were called "gymnasiums." 

In order to prepare efficient teachers for the gym- 
nasiums, pedagogical seminaries were established in 
all the Prussian universities. In the same way Pesta- 
lozzian teachers, trained in Pestalozzian normal schools, 
became the requirement in elementary schools. 

In 18 1 7 the Bureau of Education founded ten years 
before became a separate ministry, and in 1825 pro- 
vincial school boards responsible to the ministry were 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 343 

organized, and it was hoped that this provision would 
gradually eliminate all ecclesiastical domination over 
education. From that time on, up to the Franco- 
Prussian War, it was the policy of the government to 
eliminate all such individual initiative in education as 
might result from Pestalozzianism, and the rights of 
the social whole to such practical studies as geography, 
history, and science were largely ignored. The climax 
to this despotism in education came in 1848 when, in 
the reign of Frederick William IV, after the demand 
of the people for a more liberal constitution, kinder- 
gartens were prohibited as revolutionary institutions 
and all liberalism in university professors was looked 
upon with suspicion. 

The Later Hohenzollerns. — After the revolution of 
1848 the educational reforms of Prussia, in response 
to the increasing commercial and political rivalries 
between the Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgers, be- 
came intensely practical and nationalistic. In order 
to make the Realschulen as well as the gymnasiums 
feeders for the scientific and technical courses offered 
in the universities, Latin was incorporated into the 
gymnasiums in 1859 and the course lengthened to 
nine years, thus making these gymnasiums Latin- 
scientific schools of a high order. After the triumph of 
Prussia over Austria in 1866 and over France in 187 1, 
and the formation of the German Empire with Prussia 
as the dominating centre, the gymnasiums still furthered 
the interests of a nationalism that amounted prac- 
tically to idolatry. The late Emperor William became 
the voice of this "kultur" ideal. Said he in 1890 to 
the Berlin School Conference: "First of all, a national 
basis is wanting in the gymnasiums. Their founda- 



344 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tion must be German. It is our duty to educate men 
to become young Germans and not young Greeks and 
Romans. Hence we must make German the basis 
around which everything revolves." NationaHsm now 
began to mean pan-Germanism. The German people, 
including the clergy, must henceforth make efficiency 
through education by the state for the state their 
supreme concern. 

Elementary Schools. — The German elementary schools 
are intended for the children of the masses who are 
destined for mechanical pursuits, and are therefore 
properly called " Volksschulen " (schools for the peo- 
ple). They are free to all, both boys and girls, and 
compulsory from the age of six to fourteen. The cur- 
riculum includes reading, writing, singing, drawing, 
geography, history, and religious instruction. In 
Protestant Germany the pupil is confirmed by the 
church at the end of the eight-year course. If the 
child is to be transferred from the Volksschule to any 
one of the three kinds of high schools, it must be done 
at the age of nine. The teachers of the Volksschulen 
are professionally trained, and must hold state certifi.- 
cates, which entitle the holder to permanent positions. 
About fifteen per cent of the teachers are women. 

Secondary Schools. — There are three kinds of high 
schools in Germany, namely, the gymnasium, the real- 
gymnasium, and the realschule. They are all alike 
in organization, administration, methods, and discipline, 
but differ from each other in curriculum. 

The gymnasium is the classical high school of Ger- 
many, making Latin and Greek the fundamental 
studies and formal discipline the aim. It is specially 
intended for the sons of the German aristocracy and 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 345 

professional classes, and graduation gives these priv- 
ileged classes high prestige. Besides Latin and Greek, 
together with the usual correlatives, the curriculum 
includes French and English, mathematics, science, 
and religion. The pupil is entered at the age of nine, 
either from the Volksschule — which is exceptional — or 
from a " Vorschule" (preparatory school), and remains 
for nine years, when he is ready for the university. 
The teachers are specially prepared by university 
"Seminars" (university normal schools), and hold 
their positions as government officials. 

The real-gymnasium is the Latin-scientific high 
school of Germany. It has Latin in every year, but 
substitutes French and English for Greek, and gives 
much attention to science and mathematics. Gradua- 
tion from the real-gymnasium prepares the student to 
enter the scientific and technical courses in the Ger- 
man universities. The social prestige which gradua- 
tion from the real-gymnasium guarantees is not equal 
to that of the gymnasium. 

The realschule is a six-year high school from which 
Latin and Greek are both omitted. French, however, 
is taken up from the beginning. In other respects the 
realschule is very much like the real-gymnasium in 
its curriculum. Graduation does not lead to the uni- 
versity but to practical vocations, and shortens com- 
pulsory military service from two to one year. 

Various attempts have been made since 1878 to 
overcome the difficulty of transfer from one kind of 
high school to another. These attempts have pro- 
duced "reformed" high schools that seem to serve the 
purpose, and they are growing in number. 

Since 1908 the Prussian Government has organized 



346 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

secondary schools giving girls practically the same 
opportunities as boys. These opportunities include 
normal schools, from which they usually graduate at 
twenty, and are then permitted to teach not only in 
the Volksschulen but also in the lower classes of secon- 
dary schools. 

Higher Education. — Germany, owing to competition 
between states, has many universities. They have 
now all been acquired by the state or come into exist- 
ence by state permission. They charge fees, but are 
supported chiefly by the state, and under the direct 
control of the minister of education. This official 
appoints the professors, but takes counsel with the 
faculty. Representatives from the different faculties 
annually elect a rector as head of the internal admin- 
istration but he must be confirmed by the minister of 
instruction. The traditional division of the teaching 
forces into faculties of law, medicine, theology, and 
philosophy is still honored. Most of the new sub- 
jects under the head of science, sociology, and litera- 
ture are placed under the faculty of philosophy. The 
German universities permit elective courses and aca- 
demic freedom except in theology. Women are also 
admitted since 1908. Technical high schools of uni- 
versity rank have lately sprung up, and devote them- 
selves especially to education in agriculture, forestry, 
mining, engineering, and commerce. 

Estimate. ^ — The Hohenzollerns of Prussia have suc- 
ceeded in organizing a state system of education in 
which the means are selected with pitiless accuracy 
for the one end in view, namely, the ambitious aggran- 
dizement of a ruling house. In order to succeed in this 
ambition it was necessary to subordinate the claims of 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 347 

God and the rights of man to a system of might. The 
Ilohenzollern frightfulness with which the civilized 
world has become so familiar in these last years shows 
that a system of education which does not make for 
righteousness and justice, for human liberty and hu- 
manity, is a curse in spite of the pathetic obedience to 
which blind patriotism may follow the god of military 
efficiency. 

FRANCE 

Up to 1789, when the revolution through which 
Louis XVI lost his throne began, the dominant pur- 
pose in French education was religious, and the gen- 
eral administration of schools was in the hands of the 
teaching congregations, the Christian Brothers having 
become more than the successful competitors of the 
Jesuits and other orders — and all this in spite of the 
powerful influence of rationalism as propounded by 
the cyclopaedists and of naturalism as championed by 
Rousseau. 

Infant Schools. — That the educational activities of 
the church were prompted not only by the narrowing 
interests of denominationalism but also by the broad- 
ening interests of philanthropy appears in such at- 
tempts as those of Pastor Oberlin. Jean Frederic 
Oberlin was a young Lutheran pastor whose charge in 
eastern France had been ravaged by war. Oberlin 
conceived the idea of giving some training to the very 
young children of the villages belonging to his charge. 
Thus arose toward the close of the eighteenth century 
the so-called ''infant schools" of France. They were 
day-nurseries into which physical exercises, singing, 
drawing, and other kindergarten exercises were woven. 



348 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

In 1801 the system was brought to Paris, in 1833 the 
infant schools became a part of the national system of 
schools, but since 1881 they have been known as "ma- 
ternal schools." Although in the French system they 
are the substitute for the kindergarten, the kinder- 
garten aim of development is subordinate to the Pesta- 
lozzian aim of imparting knowledge. 

The National Convention. — The great leaders of the 
''national convention" felt that the perpetuity of the 
republic which they had called into being in 1792 
could be assured only by the establishment of a na- 
tional and lay system of education, and, moved by this 
conviction, they gave much attention to reports and 
bills relating to the matter. The outcome was an 
order to establish elementary schools throughout 
France, and to make attendance compulsory; but the 
Reign of Terror and the Wars of the Directory fol- 
lowed, so that, apart from the establishment of the 
normal school and the polytechnic school at Paris 
in 1793, almost nothing came of the proposed school 
system. 

Napoleon. — When, as First Consul (1800- 1804), 
Napoleon began the great work of reconstructing and 
reforming France, and thus to pave his way for empire, 
he saw with marvellous keenness that in order to secure 
and complete the social results of the revolution, edu- 
cation was the means to the end, and that in order to 
heal the breach which the national convention had 
made between the church and the state, the clergy 
must be recognized in all his restorations and reforms. 
Accordingly, in connection with the codification of 
laws which he intrusted to famous jurists, he planned 
a school system worthy of his great mind. 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 349 

After abolishing the autonomy of the universities, 
most of which had become moribund, and after re- 
ducing all of them except Paris to mere groups of 
faculties whose work it should be to grant degrees, 
he united all secondary and higher institutions into 
one corporate body to be controlled by the state, and 
called it "The University of Paris." Inasmuch as 
the spokes of this corporate body were to radiate into 
every part of France, he divided the country into 
twenty-seven administrative "academies," or sections, 
committing the administration of the educational af- 
fairs of each academy to a rector and an academic 
council, a plan which remained in force until 1875. 
The church, however, as already intimated, was per- 
mitted to assume control of elementary education 
and special favor was shown to the Christian Brothers, 
whose schools had been suppressed in 1792. 

The Restored Bourbons. — Louis XVIII (1814-1824) 
and Charles X (1824-1830), the restored Bourbons, 
believing that it served their interests as despots to 
conciliate the church as much as possible, continued the 
pohcy of permitting the teaching congregations to 
assume control of elementary education, and Louis 
XVIII promptly put even the control of secondary 
and higher education into the hands of a priest, Frey- 
sinous by name, who was known to be opposed to 
state control of education. 

Louis Philippe. — The July revolution of 1830 gave 
France a "citizen king," Louis Philippe (1830-1848), 
through whom the social whole of France began to 
come to its own not only politically but also in the 
vital matter of elementary education. His celebrated 
minister of public instruction, Guizot, promptly began 



350 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to agitate the question of popular education, and It 
was through him that the foundation of the present 
educational system of France was firmly laid in the 
law of 1833, the passage of which he secured. This 
law established two grades of elementary schools, a 
primary school for every commune, or district, and a 
higher primary school for every commune of six thou- 
sand Inhabitants. The state was to bear the financial 
burden of these schools completely, except that a small 
fee was required on the part of pupils who could afford 
it. The appointment of teachers was vested in the 
state, and, for the sufficient supply of qualified teach- 
ers, about thirty department normal schools, not co- 
educational, were created. The church had thus lost 
control of popular education, but, to compensate the 
social whole for this loss, provision was made for free- 
dom of religious Instruction. The plan for higher 
primary schools never came to full fruition, but much 
progress was made in Louis Philippe's reign in the 
establishment and pedagogical conduct of the primary 
schools. Gulzot was a veritable inspiration to the 
teacher. He addressed to them the beautiful words: 
"I know full well that the law will never succeed In 
rendering the simple profession of district teacher as 
attractive as it is useful. Society cannot make a 
sufl&clent return to him who is devoted to this work. 
... It is his glory to pretend to nothing but his ob- 
scure and laborious condition; to exhaust his strength 
in sacrifice scarcely noticed by those who profit by 
them; in a word, to labor for men, and expect his 
reward from God alone." 

Louis Napoleon. — Under the Second Republic (1848- 
1852) the school laws of France were extensively re- 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 351 

vised in 1850, but when this Second Republic gave 
way to the Second Empire (1852-1870), the old hope 
of healing the breach between the church and the 
state resulted in a large restoration of denominational 
primary schools in preference to state-controlled 
primary schools. 

Third Republic. — When in 187 1 France for the third 
time became a republic, the great leaders, with Gam- 
betta at the head, determined to establish universal 
education, not simply because it was better for all 
classes of the social whole and the individuals who 
constitute the social whole, but especially also because 
it was essential to the perpetuity of the republic. 
And, inasmuch as only the state, that is the organized 
representative of the social whole, could be intrusted 
with so vast a task, education must be secularized in 
the administration of all its departments. The cen- 
tral administration was accordingly intrusted to a 
minister of public instruction, who should be as- 
sisted by special directors of primary, secondary, and 
higher education. The academies into which France 
was divided are each supervised by a rector supported 
by an academy council in charge of the three fields of 
education. The teachers, however, are appointed by 
a so-called "prefect," a political appointee. To guar- 
antee the faithful performance of all functions, the 
republic maintains a complete corps of state, academy, 
and district inspectors, assisted by local school com- 
mittees. In short, the republic has made itself re- 
sponsible for practically everything in the administra- 
tion of French education — appoints the teachers, pro- 
vides a pension system for teachers, controls the cur- 
riculum and methods of education, and, when private 



352 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

instruction is permitted, safeguards the public interests 
by state supervision. This ambitious system was put 
into pretty complete operation between 1871 and 1881, 
when millions of francs were spent in the erection of 
school buildings and for equipment, pro\ision being 
made among other things for manual training and 
technical education as public necessities. In 1881 
every commune had a primary school; in 1882 atten- 
dance was made compulsory between the ages of six 
and thirteen. Every department (county) was re- 
quired to provide a normal school for teachers of both 
sexes. After 1886 clergymen were no longer allowed 
to teach in the public schools. In 190 1 a bill was passed 
requiring all denominational secondary schools to 
catalogue their purposes and activities, and thus to 
put themselves under state control. This "Law of 
Associations," aimed especially at the religious orders, 
aroused much opposition, and led to the closing of all 
such schools in 1902 and 1904. There is, therefore, 
now a complete separation of church and state in 
French education. 

Elementary Schools. — Since 1833, through Guizot, 
the primary education of the French child may begin 
at the age of three in the maternal or mother's school, 
or French kindergarten. Yrom six to thirteen the 
children of both sexes are required to attend a primary 
school, in which reading, writing, drawing, language, 
nature, geography, history, civics, morals, singing, 
physical culture are taught. A higher primary course 
of three years, of a more practical and vocational na- 
ture, is provided for children who can remain in school 
longer than the prescribed time. Agricultural and in- 
dustrial continuation schools are also to be found in 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 353 

various communes, supported by the communes under 
state supervision. Coeducation is not permissible in 
the French elementary schools, except where it can- 
not well be avoided. 

Secondary Education. — There are two kinds of high 
schools in France, namely, the lycees, or national 
high schools, and the communal colleges. 

The lycees are supported in part by fees, but chiefly 
by the state. The pupil enters at the age of ten, 
usually by transfer from the primary school, and may 
elect at once whether he will spend the first four years 
on the classics, or on science together with mathe- 
matics and the modern languages. At the end of the 
"cycle" of four years he is permitted to change his 
course for the next two years, making up any deficien- 
cies which the change may require. Regardless of the 
course pursued up to that point, the French boy is 
permitted to devote his seventh year specially either 
to a philosophic course, including literature and the 
social humanities, or to a scientific course, with stress 
upon mathematics, either course leading to a "bach- 
elor's degree." 

The communal colleges, which are local schools sup- 
ported partly by fees, but chiefly by the commune, 
and with some help from the state, offer courses sim- 
ilar to those of the lycees, but do not have the same 
social prestige, and the professors are not subject to 
the same high requirements for appointment. 

Up to 1880, when the law created lycees and com- 
munal colleges, French girls who wished to secure a 
secondary education were usually obliged to obtain it 
in convents and private schools, but the secondary 
schools then created for girls have grown steadily in 



354 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

number and popularity. These lyc6es for girls offer 
only a five-year course, exclude the classics from the 
curriculum, and put great stress on domestic economy, 
drawing, music, and morals, together with courses in 
mathematics and science. As a rule, only women are 
allowed to teach in the lycees for girls, and these must 
be graduates of higher normal schools especially estab- 
lished for the purpose, as in the case of teachers for the 
lycees for boys. 

Higher Education. — The subordinate position to 
which the Napoleonic reorganization of university 
faculties had reduced these institutions of higher edu- 
cation was not seriously corrected during the nine- 
teenth century. In the year 1885, however, a law was 
passed to organize a governing council, to co-ordinate 
the faculties, and to hold property as corporate bodies. 
In 1896 the separate faculties of law, medicine, science, 
and letters were reorganized into full universities, that 
is, universities each having the above four faculties, 
supported and controlled by the state. Such complete 
universities were planned for each of the sixteen 
academies except one. Eight of them have now been 
fully organized. The minister of instruction appoints 
the professors, who are nominated by the joint action 
of the faculties, and receive their salary from the state. 
The internal government of a French university is 
vested in a council consisting of faculty deans and 
headed by a rector. All French universities are open 
to women as well as men, and they admit students 
from other countries. Numerous professional and 
technical institutions of a high order complete the 
system of French higher education. 

Estimate. — The striking feature of the French sys- 
tem of education is the uncompromising, almost pitiless, 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 355 

secularization of the system, the logical result of the 
long struggle for supremacy of the church over the 
state ending in favor of the state. It is much to be 
doubted whether the final result to the French social 
whole and the highest interests of humanity will jus- 
tify the divorce of religion from civic and moral instruc- 
tion, and the time may come, perhaps as a result of 
the late tragical conflict with the brute force of Prus- 
sianism, when France will give religion its proper place 
in her school curriculum and her teaching force, and 
that, too, without bringing back the evils of any denomi- 
national bitterness. In all other respects the liberality, 
humanity, and wisdom of the French system make 
France akin in spirit and purpose with the United 
States, as she is in history of human rights. 

ENGLAND 

The traditional conviction that education should 
really be a function of the church rather than of the 
state, and the additional conviction of upper-class 
English people that the lower class should serve rather 
than think, prevailed longer in England than else- 
where. During the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies, indeed, the Established Church limited her edu- 
cational activities almost wholly to secondary and 
higher education, thus pandering almost slavishly to 
the conservatism of the English aristocracy. We should 
therefore not be surprised to find that the English 
Government assumed no official responsibility for the 
education of the submerged social and industrial 
classes much before the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. In the meantime, however, as early as the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century and all through the 



356 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

century, the abject helplessness of the poor and Igno- 
rant produced philanthropists and philanthropic or- 
ganizations that believed what the educational re- 
formers of other countries advocated, namely, that all 
classes of the social whole should become the bene- 
ficiaries of education not only because it is better for 
each class but also because it is best for the social 
whole, and who therefore organized movements, phil- 
anthropic and experimental, through which in time the 
state as the only efficient and representative organism 
of the social whole was compelled to pay attention. It 
was thus that in the nineteenth century the English 
Government, like Germany, France, and the United 
States, gradually and finally assumed the responsibility 
of universal, free, and compulsory education. Among 
these movements, as stated before, were the charity 
schools, the Sunday-schools, the monitorial schools, 
and the infant schools. 

Charity Schools. — Some charity schools were estab- 
lished as early as the close of the seventeenth century; 
but, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a 
group of philanthropists, moved by compassion and a 
sense of moral responsibility, largely inspired by the 
Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray, organized a "Society 
for Promoting Christian Knowledge," whose object it 
should be to found schools through which poor children 
might be made "loyal church members, fit for work in 
that station of life in which it hath pleased their 
Heavenly Father to place them." In other words, 
instruction in religion and morals, together with read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic of an elementary nature, 
was to be supplemented by training which would fit 
boys for apprenticeships in the trades and girls for 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 357 

domestic service. In practice, the children received 
not only instruction and books but also in many cases 
food and clothing. 

The success of the society was phenomenal. In 
spite of opposition from the upper classes, who feared 
that such education would spoil the lower classes, it 
was not difficult, as a rule, to enlist local help in the 
establishment, support, and management of the schools, 
for the society on its part took pains to safeguard the 
religious, moral, and pedagogical fitness of the teachers, 
and guaranteed stipends for its treasury in case of 
great need. In half a century the number of the char- 
ity schools in England and Wales had grown to more 
than two thousand, attended by more than fifty thou- 
sand children. Although the initial impulse gradually 
lost its force, the charity movement continued all 
through the eighteenth century, until it was absorbed 
early in the nineteenth century by the "National 
Society." Through an offshoot from the parent so- 
ciety known as the ''Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts," founded by Doctor Bray 
three years after the parent society, the church school 
movement was carried into the American colonies, 
where, as we shall see, it became a most important 
forerunner of our free schools. 

British Sunday-Schools. — In 1780 Robert Raikes, a 
manufacturer of Gloucester, England, believing that 
the squalor and vice of the city were largely due to the 
ignorance of the poor, opened a school for the instruc- 
tion of both adults and children in religion and the 
rudiments on Sundays. He paid his teachers a shilling 
a Sunday to teach the children to read in the Bible, 
spell, and write, and soon had a number of such schools 



358 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

in successful operation. In spite of opposition from 
the upper classes against this form of charity schools, 
Robert Raikes had warm supporters among the no- 
bility and such reformers as John Wesley, and it was 
not long before the movement spread to London, and 
then all through the British Isles, and in 1786 to the 
American colonies. This rapid extension of the move- 
ment was due largely to the formation of a "Sunday- 
School Society" founded in 1785, and to its activity 
in distributing Bibles, testaments, and spellers. 
Within ten years one thousand Sunday-schools con- 
tained over sixty-five thousand pupils. 

The Sunday-schools gradually abandoned secular 
instruction and the practice of paid teachers, and be- 
came purely religious institutions. Raikes and other 
promoters of the movement realized almost from the 
beginning that Sunday-schools in their attempts at 
secular instruction were only makeshifts. Neverthe- 
less, like other philanthropic experiments, they really 
helped to pave the way for the larger measures of uni- 
versal education not only in Great Britain but also 
in America. 

The Monitorial System of Schools. — At the close of 
the eighteenth century a system of mutual instruction, 
long known among the Hindus, and best known as 
the Madras system, was inaugurated as a philanthropic 
movement in the British Isles, and carried from there 
into America and other colonies. The fathers of the 
movement were Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster. 

Andrew Bell. — Andrew Bell (1753-183 2) was a 
Scotchman, born and educated at St. Andrews, Scot- 
land, of whose university he was a graduate. He re- 
sided in Virginia seven years. On his return he took 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 359 

orders in the Church of England, and was sent to 
Madras, India, to assume charge of an orphans' home 
estabUshed by the East India Company, to care for the 
orphans of Enghsh soldiers. There was a salary at- 
tached to the appointment>, which, however, Doctor 
Bell refused to accept because unselfish benevolence 
had prompted him to undertake the work. When he 
found that he could not supply the kind of teachers 
most needed, he adopted the system of mutual instruc- 
tion sometimes employed in Hindu schools. In other 
words, he selected the most capable pupils and taught 
them the lesson which they, in turn, were to teach 
classes of less advanced pupils. From the very start 
he required the boys to do everything, so far as pos- 
sible, for themselves. The plan succeeded beyond all 
expectations. At the end of seven years he found it 
necessary, on account of failing health, to return to 
England, where in 1797 he pubhshed an account of 
the experiment, which attracted much attention. 

In 1807 he established a monitorial school in London. 
Many influential people, among them the clergy, be- 
came interested in the system. Thus arose the "Na- 
tional Society " through which the Church of England 
undertook to establish monitorial schools all over the 
British dominions. The work prospered greatly under 
the management of Doctor Bell, and in less than ten 
years one thousand schools were established, with more 
than two hundred thousand children in attendance. 

Joseph Lancaster. — In 1798 Joseph Lancaster, an 
Enghsh Quaker, then only twenty years old, opened a 
school in Southwark, London, to help as many of the 
barefoot, unkempt children of that unhappy part of 
the city as possible to an education that would do 



360 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

them real good. He soon had a hundred pupils in 
this school. Like Bell at Madras, of whose work he 
did not then know, he hit upon the monitorial system 
of supplying the necessary assistant instructors, and, 
like Bell, succeeded beyond all expectation. Powerful 
support made it possible for him to erect a schoolhouse 
in which in 1805 he had under his care about a thou- 
sand children. The experiment attracted George III 
(i 760-1820), who, on a visit to the school, was greatly 
delighted, and expressed the wish that every child in 
his kingdom might learn to read the Bible. Influential 
patrons and increasing subscriptions made it possible 
for Lancaster to found a normal school for the train- 
ing of teachers in his system. His attempt to extend 
his system was a great success, but he became a bank- 
rupt, and an association had to be formed in 1808 to 
save the cause. This organization, consisting of dis- 
senters, and known as the "British and Foreign So- 
ciety," continued Lancaster's work with much success. 
Lancaster himself withdrew from the society in 1818, 
and came to America to establish his system here. He 
died in 1838. 

Estimate. — The monitorial systems of Bell and Lan- 
caster opened the school-door to thousands of children 
who otherwise must have grown up in ignorance. The 
monitorial schools provided these children with a fair 
education in the elementary subjects, added some vo- 
cational and industrial training, and emphasized re- 
ligious and moral instruction. That much of this 
monitorial instruction was injured by the drill mechan- 
ics which were necessary in the handUng of large groups 
by monitors goes without saying, but it paved the way 
for better things. Through the rivalry which sprang 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 361 

up between the two societies to which the system gave 
rise, the national government began to reah'ze not only 
the possibility of supplying teachers but also its official 
responsibility to educate the social whole, and thus 
step by step the present system of universal, free, and 
compulsory education came into being. 

Infant Schools. — In 1816 Robert Owen, who had 
not heard of the French movement, established an 
infant school for the children of the operatives in his 
cotton factory at New Lanark, Scotland. The chil- 
dren were not to be "annoyed with books." They 
were to be taught about nature and common objects, 
but through familiar conversation and by means of 
models, paintings, maps, etc. In order that the edu- 
cation which they were to receive for about three years, 
beginning at the age of three, might include the body 
and morals as well as the intellect, instruction was 
combined with much singing, outdoor exercise, dancing, 
and other amusements. The experiment was a great 
success. 

The plan was carried to London, where Samuel 
Wilderspin became the great exponent of the system. 
He unfortunately made his London school a small 
copy of what a school for older children usually at- 
tempts, thus resolving the experiment into the process 
of producing infant prodigies, in whose rather over- 
crowded curriculum the memory work left little room 
for real education. Even the games became stereo- 
typed and religious instruction an empty form. He 
popularized the infant school through lecture tours, 
and organized new schools everywhere. This result 
was greatly hastened by the organization in 1824 of 
an "Infant School Society." 



362 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

About a dozen years later Reverend Charles Mayo 
founded in London an organization whose purpose it 
was to train infant-school teachers. This society, 
known as "The Home and Colonial School Society," 
grafted Pestalozzianism upon the infant school. This 
emphasis on object-lessons and the cultivation of the 
senses redeemed the infant school somewhat from the 
Wilderspin formalism, but failed to infuse the real 
spirit of Pestalozzi's spontaneity into the curriculum. 
The desirable result, however, was largely attained 
when in 1874, four years after the infant schools had 
become a part of the primary school system of Great 
Britain, some of the methods and games of the kinder- 
garten were incorporated. 

Present System. — The philanthropic movements in- 
augurated by Raikes, Bell, Lancaster, apd others 
helped to wake an increasingly larger social whole to 
self-consciousness. This result was powerfully aug- 
mented by the gradual enfranchisement of the indus- 
trial classes which came about through the invention 
of the stationary steam-engine and labor-saving ma- 
chinery and by the concentration of population in 
factory towns and coal and iron sections. The age-old 
conviction of the governing classes that the lower 
classes should be kept down to their place thus gradu- 
ally gave way to the conviction that education was an 
inherent right of all men and that the social whole, 
through the government as the guardian of this social 
whole, must eventually assume control of education. 
Thus it came about that through much agitation the 
government began to appoint committees to look into 
conditions and possibilities, and that in reply to re- 
ports submitted it passed a series of bills through 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 363 

which the present system of English education was 
established. These bills generally closely followed the 
great reform bills through which new classes of the 
social whole were enfranchised. The Reform Bill of 
1832, for example, was followed by a parhamentary 
grant of £20,000 a year, "to be distributed through the 
two religious educational societies, the National So- 
ciety and the British and Foreign Society, for the sole 
purpose of aiding in building schoolhouses, for which 
subscriptions had already been collected." This 
method of distributing state funds through church 
societies really greatly retarded the growth of senti- 
ment in favor of absolute state control. The matter 
was corrected in 1839, when the Victorian government 
appointed a special committee of the Privy Council 
on Education, which committee insisted that a school, 
in order to share in the government funds, must be 
open to government inspection. In 1870, after the 
great extension of the franchise of 1868, Parliament 
finally passed a bill by means of which a system of 
state-organized, state-supported, and state-controlled 
elementary schools was established. Among other 
things, this bill provided that wherever there was lack 
of school accommodation the voters of the com- 
munity might elect a school board, whose business it 
should be to maintain an elementary school. The 
"board" schools thus established were to receive a 
government grant for their support, but an equal 
amount of money was to be raised by local taxation. 
The community church schools, supported by volun- 
tary subscriptions, and therefore known as "volun- 
tary" schools, were to participate in the government 
grant, but not in the money made up by local taxation, 



364 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and the government grant in both cases was to depend 
upon the report of government inspectors. Religious 
instruction, but not of a denominational character, 
was permitted, but for "conscience" sake had to be 
placed at the beginning or the end of the school day. 

The compromise which permitted the denominational, 
or voluntary, schools to participate in the government 
grants, unfortunately perpetuated competition and 
thus serious bitterness. In 1899 a central board of 
education was established to take over the powers 
which had, up to that time, been rather awkwardly 
distributed. 

The board schools, adding local support to govern- 
ment grants, grew rapidly in number, first because they 
were able to employ more and better teachers, and 
then, too, because the schools formerly supported by 
the British and Foreign Society found it easy to merge 
with them. The result was that in 1902 there were 
more pupils in the board schools than in the voluntary 
schools. The Established Church, alarmed by the 
serious possibilities to herself as the guardian of re- 
ligion and morals, steadfastly continued to oppose 
absolute secularization. Her support of the policy of 
the Conservatives made it possible for the latter to 
push through Parliament in 1902 a measure whereby 
the voluntary schools were allowed to share the local 
rates as well as government grants with the board 
schools. The measure also provided for still more 
comprehensive national, county, and municipal con- 
trol, but left a thorn in the side of the non-conformists 
by placing the supervision of individual schools in 
control of a local board of managers, to consist of two 
appointees by the county or municipal council and 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 365 

four selected by the denomination. The advantageous 
position in which this arrangement placed the Estab- 
lished Church aroused such resentment that the Liberals 
in 1904 tried hard to correct the defect, and, although 
the House of Lords rejected the bill which the Com- 
mons had sent up, further corrective legislation is 
altogether likely. 

Present Elementary Education. — The elementary 
education of an English child now begins with the 
infant school, which he may enter at the age of five 
years, and in which he may remain three years. Here, 
as already explained, he is engaged in Pestalozzian 
activities that have taken on kindergarten aspects, 
but he learns also the rudiments of reading, writing, 
and numbers. The infant school paves the way to the 
board or the voluntary school, as the case may be, 
where attendance continues to be compulsory up to 
the age of twelve, or, by the permission of the local 
board, up to fourteen. On the other hand, children 
engaged in agricultural pursuits may secure partial 
exemption from attendance after they are eleven years 
old, and those engaged in industries after they are 
twelve. The course of studies includes reading, writing, 
arithmetic, drawing, geography, history, physical cul- 
ture, singing, and religion. 

Up to 1900 many larger cities were permitted to 
establish higher grade board schools, in which courses 
were offered in competition with those of the endowed 
secondary "public," or grammar, and private schools. 
In response to protests, this matter was settled by 
fixing upon fifteen years as the upper age limit for 
pupils in these higher grade board, or "provided," 
schools. The additional three-year free curriculum 



366 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

puts emphasis upon vocational education in connection 
with the general subjects, and is intended for pupils 
who can remain beyond the compulsory attendance 
age. At this writing only a small per cent of the chil- 
dren remain for this course. On the other hand, large 
numbers of those who leave school at the end of the 
compulsory-attendance limit enter evening continua- 
tion schools, of which, however, there do not seem to 
be a sufficient number, for they bridge the way to the 
specialized schools of science and art maintained by 
special grants of the English Government. 

It remains to add that some sixty normal or training 
colleges, all under government inspection, have been 
established to provide quahfied teachers for elementary 
schools of all kinds. 

/ Secondary Education. — Up to 1902 there was almost 
no provision made for the secondary education of the 
middle class and working people. The secondary edu- 
cation of the social elite of England, as Doctor Duggan 
puts it, has been in the hands of the endowed "public" 
and "grammar" schools, and of "private adventure" 
schools. 

Public Schools. — The seven English "public" schools, 
namely, Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrews- 
bury, Westminster, and Winchester, are all aristo- 
cratic boarding-schools, highly endowed and more 
than three centuries old. With them must be placed 
the famous day-schools, St. Paul's and Merchant 
Taylors' in London. They all prepare directly for 
Oxford and Cambridge, somewhat in the same sense 
as the gymnasiums of Germany and the lyceums of 
France prepare for similar universities, and, in spite of 
the fact that the mother tongue, the modern languages, 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 367 

and the natural sciences have been admitted into the 
curriculum, Latin and Greek still hold their own. 
Their efficiency, however, has been vastly improved 
by reforms beginning with Doctor Thomas Arnold. 

Thomas Arrwld. — Doctor Arnold was made head 
master of Rugby in 1828, and the reforms which he 
introduced there gradually permeated into the atmos- 
phere of the other great schools. He set up new 
standards of excellence that have persisted through a 
long succession of masters. To begin with, Arnold 
made promotion depend not upon routine work but 
upon scholarship and merit as far as this was possible 
through examinations. He governed the boys not 
by force but by vigorous appeal to all that was best 
in them. In place of the brutal system of "fagging," 
which requires students of the lower classes to per- 
form menial services for those of the upper classes, 
he introduced a system of responsible supervision by 
the upper-class men over younger boys, thus paving 
the way for what is now called "student government." 

Grammar -Schools. — The grammar-schools of England, 
like the preparatory schools, are endowed private 
schools, scattered all over the country, many of them 
as old as the public, or preparatory, schools. Like the 
latter, they admit children anywhere between seven 
and ten years of age, and keep them in some cases until 
they are eighteen. The celebrated grammar-school at 
Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakespeare learned Latin, 
still remains the type. 

Private Schools. — After the Reform Bill of 1832 secon- 
dary schools having a "modern side" to compete with 
the "classical side" sprang up in great number. They 
were founded in most cases by stock companies, as 



368 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

private enterprises, from which they take their name. 
These schools were practically the first secondary 
schools to provide for girls, and they have won much 
praise for excellency of curriculum and spirit. 

The Forster Education Bill of 1902 provided for the 
establishment of secondary schools by the local authori- 
ties, thus accepting the modern idea that the public 
treasury should contribute not only to the support of 
elementary but also secondary and higher education. 
This support is now given to all secondary schools, 
private and public, which meet the requirements of 
the National Board of Education, and serves as a 
powerful stimulus. To receive this state support the 
school must comply with the rulings of the "board" 
on questions of curriculum, length of term, hours of 
attendance, and inspection. Twenty-five per cent of 
the students in the school receiving "grants" must 
come from the public elementary schools, and no re- 
ligious test is allowed. More than a thousand secon- 
dary schools of England now receive such aid, about 
one-third of which are of the newer schools founded 
by local authorities. 

Higher Education. — Among the most celebrated uni- 
versities in the world are Oxford and Cambridge. 
"Their origin," as Doctor Painter puts it, "is lost in 
the darkness of the Middle Ages." Oxford comprises 
twenty-three separate colleges and Cambridge nine- 
teen. Each of the separate colleges has its own presi- 
dent, rector, or provost, while the general or univer- 
sity government is administered by a chancellor. 
These universities are maintained by magnificent en- 
dowments. Candidates for degrees must reside at 
the college for three academic years, and pass a satis- 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 309 

factory examination before a university board of ex- 
aminers. Through the will of Cecil Rhodes, the Eng- 
lish money-king of Africa, in which he provided for 
scholarships, students have for some years been ad- 
mitted from foreign countries. The candidates for 
such admission must be able to pass rigid intellectual, 
moral, and physical examination conducted in their 
own country at set times by accredited examiners. 

The University of London was created by royal 
charter in 1836. In 1901 it ceased to be only an ex- 
amining body and became a teaching institution. 
This university is now a confederation of twenty-six 
colleges and schools, organized into eight faculties, 
including pedagogy, and all well articulated with mu- 
nicipal schools. 

Oxford and Cambridge continued to merit the criti- 
cisms of Locke and Bacon almost up to the present. 
They are, however, yielding to modern pressure. 
Laboratory courses in science have been introduced, 
the granting of degrees is no longer conditioned by 
theological requirements, extension courses have been 
organized, and women are admitted. 

After 1850 England encouraged the establishment 
of "municipal universities better adjusted to modern 
needs, progressive in spirit and purpose, granting de- 
grees equally to men and women, and closely articu- 
lated with municipal public schools," and such univer- 
sities have been established by Manchester, Leeds, 
Liverpool, Birmingham, and Bristol. They are sup- 
ported chiefly by the cities, but also receive parliamen- 
tary grants and private bequests. The three colleges 
of Wales, namely, Aberystwyth, Bangor, and Cardiff, 
confederated in 1893 and became the University of 
Wales. 



370 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Estimate. — The conservatism everywhere so pro- 
nounced in the slow process of educational reforms in 
England in the end proves an inestimable blessing. 
To it has been due the common coalition between the 
lords and the clergy in political crises when educational 
reforms would have been destructive revolutions, as 
in France, and this coalition of conservatives has saved 
the church as the guardian of religion from the stulti- 
fying humiliation to militarism, as in Germany. More- 
over, the educational reforms of England, just because 
they have been less precipitate, have had a steadying 
influence in the evolution of colonial systems, as in 
America and Canada. 

REFERENCES 

1. Myers' "General History." 

2. Klemm's "European Schools." 

3. Prince's "Methods in German Schools." 

4. Seeley's "The German School System." 

5. Russell's "German Higher Schools." 

6. Richard's "The School System of France." 

7. Parson's "French Schools Through American Eyes." 

8. Barnard's "English Pedagogy." 

9. Gill's "Systems of Education." 

10. Balfour's "Educational Systems of Great Britain and 
Ireland." 

11. Graves' "History of Education," vol. III. 

12. Duggan's "History of Education." 

13. Graves' "Great Educators of Three Centuries." 

14. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

15. Spencer's "Education." 

QUESTIONS 

I. Account for the philanthropic movement to which Rous- 
seau, Pestalozzi, and many successors contributed, and state the 
results. 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 371 

2. What was the cause of the rise of educational systems that 
foster patriotism and efficiency? Name several notable exam- 
ples. 

3. To what educational efficiencies have European nations 
had to resort in their recent competition with one another? 

4. How may we obtain a definite general view of the German 
system of education? Why? 

5. What was the purpose of the Hohenzollerns in adopting 
the sixteenth-century Reformation, and to what educational 
reforms as means to the end did they resort? What part did 
successive Hohenzollerns play in the accomplishment of their 
ambitious policy? 

6. At what psychological moment did Frederick William II 
introduce the cherished system of centralization in school ad- 
ministration, and into what details did his reforms extend? 

7. Why has the kindergarten had no place in the German 
school system? 

8. Account for the intensely practical and nationalistic ten- 
dency in the higher education of Germany since 1866 and 1871. 
What always was the attitude of William II? 

9. Who attends the Volksschulen ? What purpose did the 
Hohenzollerns try to work out through these schools? How 
have the clergy and the schoolmasters helped to force this pre- 
scriptive yoke upon the masses? 

10. How have the ends of HohenzoUem militarism been served 
by the entrance conditions, curriculum, and the teachers in 
three systems of secondary schools ? How have these ends been 
conserved in the education of German women? 

11. Account for the large number of German universities 
and their prestige. 

12. Explain the serious violations of educational idealism of 
which the pan-German national system of education has been 
guilty. 

13. In whose hands was education very largely in France 
before the establishment of the first republic? 

14. Explain the origin of "infant schools" in France and their 
absorption into the national system. 

15. Explain the educational plan of the founders of the First 
Republic, and its fate. 

i6. Explain the admirable system of education which Napo- 



372 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Icon inaugurated, and how he healed the breach which the 
national convention had made between the church and state. 
How did the universities fare at his hands? 

17. Explain the conciliating and retrogressive attitude of the 
restored Bourbons toward education. 

18. Who was Guizot, and how did he reconcile the church 
with state control of schools? What did he do for teachers? 
What did he say? 

10. What did Louis Napoleon do for education, and why did 
he restore denominational primary schools? 

20. Account for the educational policy of Gambetta and his 
associates. Explain in detail the very complete system of school 
supervision to which the schools of the Third Republic are 
subject. 

21. Of what school problems has the Third Republic disposed 
since 1881 ? 

22. How may the education of the French child now begin? 
Describe the two grades of elementary schools open to all French 
children. 

23. What two kinds of secondary schools flourish in France? 
How are they supported? By whom attended? Compare the 
entrance conditions and elective possibilities of these high 
schools with the despotism of the German system, and justify 
your preference. 

24. How has France provided for the secondary education 
of women? Compare the opportunities of the French girl with 
those of the German, English, and American girls. 

25. Explain the extensive reorganization of French higher 
education since 1896. To what extent are the universities sub- 
ject to the state? Consult reference works on the superior 
technical and professional institutions for which France is now 
so celebrated. 

26. Why did the educational interests of the English industrial 
classes suffer so long, and how did philanthropy come to the 
rescue ? 

27. Account for the origin and success of two English "charity 
school" associations. 

28. Who was Robert Raikes? Explain the success of his 
Sunday-schools, and the result to the cause of education. 

29. What was the Madras system? Through whom was it 



PRESENT NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION 373 

brought to England, and with what success? Account for the 
visit of George III to the school of Joseph Lancaster. 

30. Explain the origin and success of Robert Owen's "infant 
schools," and the modifications introduced into this movement 
by Samuel Wilderspin and the Reverend Charles Mayo. 

31. What other events besides the philanthropic movements 
finally induced the English Government to provide educational 
facilities for the industrial classes? 

32. What governmental action retarded the growth of senti- 
ment in favor of absolute state control of schools, and how were 
matters settled by the Victorian government? 

33. Account for the English voluntary schools and board 
schools in origin, curriculum, and maintenance. Account for 
the rapid growth in number of the board schools. Why are the 
"non-conformists" displeased with the Parliamentary Act of 
1902, and what are the prospects? 

34. How may the education of the English child now begin? 
Explain the attendance requirements and curriculum of the 
English board and voluntary schools. 

35. What are the "higher grade board" schools of England, 
and how do they compare in popularity with the continuation 
schools ? 

36. How does England provide herself with teachers? What 
has she done for women? 

37. What provisions for secondary education existed in Eng- 
land before 1902? 

38. Explain the function, curriculum, and general character 
of the famous English "preparatory" schools. What do these 
schools owe to Doctor Arnold? Compare the grammar-schools 
and private schools with the endowed secondary schools. 

39. Explain the origin, curriculum, and prestige of Oxford 
and Cambridge. What did Cecil Rhodes do for Oxford? 

40. Explain the origin of London University, and the great 
changes it has recently undergone. 

41. What are the "municipal colleges" and "university col- 
leges" of recent England? 

42. Compare the adjustment of conflicting claims in English 
education with that of Germany and France. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE UNITED STATES 

The educational activities of the American colonies 
were closely patterned after the mother-country sys- 
tem. The colonial transplantation of education was 
followed by a nationalizing movement which, for a 
time, was seriously checked by the very revolution 
that produced the new nation, but from which check, 
or depression, there was a "great revival" before the 
Civil War, and from which our present system, full of 
faults but full of glorious prospects, ultimately de- 
veloped. 

AMERICAN COLONIES 

The thirteen colonies came into existence when 
Europe was still in the grip of the fierce agitations of 
the Reformation, and many of the colonists, most of 
them Protestant, came to America as refugees, hoping 
to establish in the New World institutions — rehgious, 
political, and educational — that should conform with 
convictions born of persecutions in the mother country. 
At the opening of the seventeenth century, and far 
into the eighteenth, the educational institutions in 
most of the European states were controlled and sup- 
ported by the church and religious orders, assisted 
financially by private benevolences. Coming to the 
New World for conscience sake, as most of them did, 

374 



, THE UNITED STATES 375 

the colonists brought with them the conviction that 
religion was fundamental in education, and that there- 
fore education should be shaped and controlled by the 
church. Nevertheless, this conception had begun to 
combine with a new conception in the countries of the 
Reformation, in several of which "guilds" had created 
a sense of municipal responsibility, and because the 
great reformers themselves, especially Luther and 
Calvin, contended that, in order to make education 
universal, the state should at least establish, if not 
control, the system. This enriched conception of edu- 
cation became the ideal of the mass of the people, 
especially in Holland and Scotland, where the Reforma- 
tion was primarily a religious and theological move- 
ment; but in France and England, where the Reforma- 
tion was largely an ecclesiastical and political move- 
ment, the new ideal was adopted only by the Huguenots 
and Puritans. The two conceptions appeared promptly 
in the colonies. In the South, where the colonies were 
organized more usually under the dominating influ- 
ence of the Anglican communion, education became 
particularistic, and the rights of the masses were long 
ignored. In the North, on the contrary, and wherever 
the ideals of Luther and Calvin were largely present, 
education was gradually, if not promptly, organized 
on democratic lines. Thus arose three types of schools: 
the selective in the South, the parochial in the middle 
colonies, and the governmental in New England. 

Southern Colonies. — In Virginia, and to a very con- 
siderable extent in other Southern colonies, England 
reproduced herself. The colony began (1607) as a 
venture by gentlemen whose main purpose it was to 
enrich themselves through the development of vast 



^-. 



376 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

plantations, and then, if opportunity presented itself, 
return to higher social positions in the mother country. 
These great landowners became centres of widely 
scattered social wholes, miniature domains in which 
the class distinctions commonly supported by the 
Church of England were largely reproduced not only 
in matters political, but especially also in education. 
The planter intrusted the education of his children and 
special proteges to the clergy and tutors, and pres- 
ently, when possible or desirable, sent them to Europe 
to complete such education. Here and there secondary 
schools were established by private interests, but neither 
the church nor the government took any direct part 
in the establishment of schools. Trade apprentice- 
ships were usually the only provisions made for the 
education of the dependent and industrial classes. 
Where elementary schools were established for the 
common people they were called "poor schools," and 
maintained by charitable and voluntary subscriptions. 
For half a century after the foundation of Jamestown 
schools were almost unknown, and successive genera- 
tions grew up in comparative ignorance. This aris- 
tocratic conservatism is voiced in Sir William Berkeley's 
famous outburst in 1671, when he wrote: *'I thank 
God that there are no free schools and printing, and 
I hope we shall not have them for a hundred years; 
for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and 
sects into the world, and printing has divulged them 
and libels against the best government. God keep 
us from both." 

The same general conditions prevailed in the other 
Southern colonies. It was only in colonies established 
by dissenters, such as the Scotch Presbyterians in 



THE UNITED STATES 377 

North Carolina, that any attempts were made to estab- 
lish public schools. 

William and Mary College. — The provincial govern- 
ment, aided by the London Company, the king him- 
self, and the Anglican bishops, made early but unsuc- 
cessful efforts to establish secondary schools and a 
college. The main purpose was to provide the church 
with ministers and to promote piety. In 1692, after 
constant renewal of efforts, William and Mary College, 
named for the home sovereigns, was established at 
Williamsburg, Va. When the sum of twenty-five 
hundred pounds had been raised by subscription, the 
lieutenant-governor heading the list, the Reverend 
James Blair, commissary of the bishop in Virginia, was 
sent to London to secure a charter. This was granted, 
and the king endowed the new institution with rich 
gifts of land and moneys, to which the planters and the 
Colonial Assembly also contributed. The college was 
thus opened under most promising conditions. It was 
founded, as stated in the charter, "to the end that the 
church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary 
of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be 
piously educated in good letters and manners, and that 
the Christian faith may be propagated among the 
Western Indians to the glory of Almighty God." The 
course of study was suited to the end in view. It 
embraced divinity, language, and natural science — a 
"divinity," says Howison, "shaped and moulded at 
every point by the liturgy and creed of the English 
Church; languages which filled the college walls with 
boys hating Greek and Latin grammars; and natural 
philosophy, which was just beginning to believe that 
the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun 



378 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

round the earth." This, the second college founded in 
America, rendered admirable service, for it furnished 
not only ministers of the gospel but also many of the 
scholars, jurists, generals, and other leaders of the 
great struggle for independence, and, although almost 
ruined by the Revolution, it recovered and, with a 
course completely adjusted to the changing environ- 
ment of our country, it has survived and continued to 
contribute with honor to the cause of higher education. 

The Middle Colonies. — The middle colonies were 
settled by religious refugees from Holland, France, 
Scotland, Germany, etc. They brought with them the 
strong denominational convictions to which they had 
fallen heir through the Reformation in the mother 
country. They all held to the fundamental principle 
of the Reformation, namely, that the Bible should be 
the rule of faith and hfe, that it should therefore be 
read by every one, and that there should be elementary 
schools; but, jealously guarding the denominational 
convictions in which they differed, they established 
schools attached to the "parish" church, which were, 
therefore, known as parish, or parochial, schools. 

New York. — The Dutch brought with them to New 
Amsterdam (New York) and the villages of the colony 
the excellent school system of Reformed Holland, in 
which control was distributed between the church and 
the state. In addition to the ordinary elementary 
branches, these schools taught the catechism and 
prayers of the Reformed Church. In short, the New 
Netherlanders holding to the idea of universal educa- 
tion committed themselves almost completely to 
the policy of elementary schools, thus acting in sharp 
contrast with the Anglican policy of the Southern 



THE UNITED STATES 379 

colonies. After 1652 there were some attempts at 
Latin, or "grammar," schools in New Amsterdam. 

When, however, in 1674 the English took final pos- 
session of the New Netherlands, the parish schools 
failed to secure the support of the new masters, and 
thus weakened they were gradually displaced by the 
random policy of the Southern colonies. 

Pennsylvania. — The first settlers of Pennsylvania 
came from various parts of western, northern, and 
central Europe. The new colony of Penn, under- 
standing the hard conditions of Europe, and appre- 
ciating the value of such immigration into Pennsyl- 
vania, welcomed and invited these refugees. They, 
in turn, coming for conscience sake, brought with them, 
as before noted, the profound denominational convic- 
tion to which they had been converted in the home- 
lands, and to safeguard these interests for themselves 
and their posterity, they all established their own schools 
side by side with their own churches, thus committing 
the colony inevitably to the policy of parish, or de- 
nominational, church schools from the very beginning. 

That this policy was not originally in Penn's mind 
appears from the plan of proprietary government which 
he drew up himself in 1682, in which he mentions 
"public" schools. In 1683, the year in which Phila- 
delphia was founded, the council of the province actu- 
ally ordered the establishment of such a school and in- 
vited Enoch Flower from England to teach it. In the 
charter which he granted in 171 1 he defines his pur- 
poses at length and with prophetic foresight. Said 
he: "Whereas the prosperity and welfare of any peo- 
ple depend, in a great measure, upon the good education 
of youth, and their early introduction into the prin- 



380 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ciples of true religion and virtue, and qualifying them 
to serve their country and themselves by breeding 
them in reading, writing, and learning of languages 
and useful arts and sciences, suitable to their sex, age, 
and degree — which cannot be effected in any manner 
so well as by erecting 'public schools' for the purposes 
aforesaid," provisions are hereby guaranteed and or- 
dered. The Friends soon (1689) started the "Penn 
Charter School," which, although an endowed secon- 
dary school itself, open free only to the poor, presently 
established elementary schools throughout the city as 
branches. They also estabUshed elementary schools, 
with some secondary schools, in close connection with 
their meeting-houses throughout the colony, thus per- 
haps unconsciously committing themselves to the con- 
gregational policy which the new immigrations were 
bringing into the colony. The large influx of Luther- 
ans, with an original policy very like that of Penn, 
also promptly erected their own schools side by side 
with their churches wherever they settled. One of 
their number, the learned Francis Daniel Pastorius, 
who laid out Germantown in 1683, established the first 
private secondary school in 1701, and taught for many 
years. The Mennonites included in their parish sys- 
tem the famous schools of Christopher Dock. This 
"pious schoolmaster of the Skippack" came in 1714, 
taught school many years with true Pestalozzian in- 
spiration, and in 1750 completed "the first elaborate 
educational treatise in America." What was done for 
education by the Friends, the Lutherans, and the Men- 
nonites was duplicated everywhere by the Reformed, 
the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Moravians, the 
Catholics, etc. Such attempts at "grammar-schools," 



THE UNITED STATES 381 

or secondary education, as that of Pastorius, were un- 
dertaken especially by the Moravians, as at Bethlehem, 
Nazareth, and Lititz. The Presbyterian log college 
at Neshaminy became the cradle of Princeton and 
other colleges. The Reverend Michael Schlatter was 
the great educational champion of the Reformed 
Church. 

When the tide of immigration began to extend into 
western and northern Pennsylvania, voluntary sub- 
scription schools, established and maintained by neigh- 
borhoods, were substituted for the parish or congre- 
gational schools. The schools established in Wyoming 
valley, settled by Connecticut colonists, were really 
public schools. 

A conspicuous attempt to produce school teachers 
who should fuse the various immigrant nationalities of 
Pennsylvania into a common citizenship was made by 
Benjamin Franklin in 1743, when he established an 
"academy" at Philadelphia, whose curriculum is 
startling in fulness of content and practical wisdom of 
selection. 

The colonists of New Jersey and Delaware were in- 
terested in education from the beginning, and so far 
as action was taken to establish schools before the 
Revolution, these colonists were committed in part to 
the parish system, while random private attempts were 
more usual. 

New England Colonies. — The people who founded 
the colony of Massachusetts had left comfort, home, 
and wealth and come to the New World to establish a 
commonwealth in which they might worship God un- 
hindered by king or priest, and according to the dic- 
tates of their own conscience, guided only by an open 



382 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

Bible. Socially most of them belonged to the middle 
class and were generally well educated. They were 
not disturbed by any aristocratic social views, as was 
the case in the Southern colonies, nor by conflicting 
denominational interests, as was the case in the middle 
colonies. Among their great leaders were Oxford and 
Cambridge graduates, who brought with them the 
precious seeds of learning. Within a few years of the 
landing of the Mayflower, when their difficulties and 
perils were still very real, these sturdy Pilgrims, per- 
ceiving the relation of means to end, planned a system 
of education that should guarantee to their posterity 
the advantages of the Christian commonwealth which 
they had come to found. 

Harvard College. — To provide themselves with faith- 
ful pastors and leaders was the first concern of the 
colony. Accordingly, in 1636 "the general court 
(legislature) voted an appropriation of four hundred 
pounds to found a school, which, after its first private 
benefactor, the Reverend John Harvard, received the 
name of Harvard College." The other New England 
colonies, moved by the same interests, cheerfully and 
liberally sustained this educational institution of Massa- 
chusetts. The college was opened in 1638 and the 
first class was graduated in 1642. The entrance re- 
quirements were in harmony with the purpose of the 
college and the humanism of the century, and were 
stated in 1642 as follows: "When any scholar is able 
to understand Tully, or such like classical author ex 
tempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and 
prose . . . and decline perfectly the paradigms of 
nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then, 
and not before, be capable of admission into the col- 



THE UNITED STATES 383 

lege." Private instruction and private schools founded 
in some towns made it possible to meet these require- 
ments. 

Town Schools. — In 1647, after some tentative legis- 
lation, the general court of Massachusetts passed a 
remarkable educational bill, in the carrying out of 
which Massachusetts became the first founder of com- 
mon schools in America. That the framers of this 
document had not lost the religious impulse of the 
Reformation appears in the strong words of the pre- 
amble, where it is stated that the purpose of the schools 
to be founded is to thwart "one chief object of that old 
deluder, Satan, to keep men from a knowledge of the 
Scriptures." The law provided that every township 
containing fifty families should maintain an elementary 
school, and that the teacher should be paid partly 
from taxes levied and partly from tuition fees. As 
soon as the township contained one hundred families, 
it was to establish and maintain a Latin, or grammar, 
school, whose course of study fitted the boy to enter 
Harvard College. Owing to the concentration of the 
population necessary on account of Indian perils, and 
for convenience, the schools established by the law 
really became town schools. In the conception of this 
law, the State was the instrument of the church, but 
the law remained the ideal even after the school had 
become completely secularized. All the other colonies 
of New England, except Rhode Island, adopted the 
Massachusetts idea. On account of fanatical devotion 
to freedom of thought, Rhode Island adopted the ran- 
dom schools of the Southern colonies. 

Decline of Town Schools. — The cause of the town 
schools in New England suffered at least three set- 



384 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

backs within the first century, from which they failed 
to recover before the Revolution. The first two set- 
backs came from the mother country and the third 
from within the colonies themselves. 

When in 1649 England became a commonwealth, 
and Puritanism gained the ascendancy at home, uni- 
versity men ceased to migrate to the colonies, thus de- 
priving the second generation of the inspiring leader- 
ship with which colonial education had been ushered 
into its first life. 

The restoration of the Stuarts (1660-1688) swung 
England like a pendulum from the extreme of Puri- 
tanism to the opposite extreme of moral tolerance and 
theological liberalism, a change which we see reflected 
in the Toleration Act of 1690, and in consequence of 
which the forbidding scarlet-letter asceticism of the 
colonies, as reflected in the Salem witchcraft wave 
(1692), gave way to diverging religious behefs and 
toleration of other sects, thus depriving the schools of 
the intense religious impulse which had inspired them 
at first. 

The town schools of New England also lost much of 
their initial efiiciency through the growth of the town 
population and through the spread of colonial popula- 
tion into unsettled regions. Originally the settlers 
clustered round the "meeting-house" and the school 
both for devotional reasons and for protection against 
Indians; but when the incentives to this centralization 
gradually disappeared, and the town spread farther 
and farther away from the school, and new settlements 
sprang up, it became necessary for the town to provide 
either a "moving" school or a "district" school in 
order to satisfy the democratic demand for equal 
school opportunities. The moving-school teacher, 



THE UNITED STATES 385 

employed by the responsible town, was generally well 
qualified for the work, but, to keep down expenses and 
to reach a number of places in the year, he was moved 
every few months. When self-governing districts 
arose, either in the spreading town or in new settlements, 
such districts maintained schools of their own; but the 
available teacher was often a poor teacher, and simply 
"kept" school. 

This gradual decline of efficiency in elementary edu- 
cation was accompanied by a similar decline, though 
not so pronounced, in grammar-school efficiency up to 
the Revolution. Nevertheless, Yale, Dartmouth, and 
Brown Colleges had in the meanwhile been added to 
Harvard in the effort to supply the higher education 
needed in the learned professions. 

TRANSITION 

When in 1776 the accredited representatives of the 
thirteen united colonies signed the Declaration of 
Independence, thus proclaiming the birth of a new 
republic, the colonies were still very young. The 
Revolutionary War into which they were now plunged 
taxed their resources to the limits of endurance. The 
cause of education was among the first to suffer. Many 
of the schools had to be closed because there were no 
available funds, others because the able-bodied teach- 
ers with the able-bodied boys were needed in the war. 
Moreover, and above all these things, the stress and 
strain of war made it difficult to keep in mind the 
direct relation of education to government and the 
precious things of life which government should guar- 
antee. 

Nevertheless, there were among the founders of the 



386 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

republic statesmen who, like the founders of the first 
French republic in 1792, realized that the efficiency 
and fate of governments both depend most directly 
upon education as a means to the end. Washington, 
Adams, Jefferson, and others believed that in a govern- 
ment "of the people, for the people, and by the people" 
education must be the function of the government 
itself, and that if the American republic was to live 
education must be universal and free. Washington 
as early as 1790 said to Congress: "There is nothing 
that can better deserve your patronage than the pro- 
motion of science and literature. Knowledge is in 
every country the surest basis of happiness. In one 
in which the measures of government receive their im- 
pression so immediately from the sense of the com- 
munity, as in ours, it is proportionally essential." In 
his inaugural address John Adams said: "The wisdom 
and generosity of the legislature in making liberal 
appropriations in money for the benefit of the schools, 
academies, and colleges is an equal honor to them and 
their constituents; a proof of their veneration of letters 
and science, and a portent of great and lasting good 
to North and South America, and to the world." 
Thomas Jefferson said: "A system of general instruc- 
tion, which shall reach every description of our citizens, 
from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, 
so it shall be the latest of all the public concerns in 
which I shall permit myself to take an interest. Give it 
to us in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon 
the thanks of the young, and the blessings of the old, 
who are past all other services but prayers for the 
prosperity of their country, and blessings to those who 
promote it." 



THE UNITED STATES 387 

Although there were influences at work before the 
close of the eighteenth century that promised an early 
fulfilment of these hopes and prayers, there were ob- 
stacles present, apparently insurmountable obstacles, 
that deferred -the solution of the problem for almost 
half a century. Among these obstacles were the prac- 
tice of public grants to private schools, sectarianism, 
class prejudice, provincialism, and selfishness. 

Virginia. — The responsible classes, as we have seen, 
took no real interest in elementary education for the 
common people. The first attempts at anything re- 
sembling such education came to be known as planta- 
tion "field schools." These schools, organized by any 
group of neighbors of their own accord, were not re- 
sponsible to any higher social whole, and depended 
for control and financial support on the organizing 
group. After the Revolution, however, there appeared 
a growing sentiment in favor of public education. 
The first great champion of the cauge was Thomas 
Jefferson, who, as early as 1779, submitted to the State 
legislature an educational bill providing not only for 
district schools, supported by local taxation, but also 
for two-year and six-year secondary courses, to be 
followed by a three years' college course at WilHam 
and Mary for those entitled to it, and to be supported 
from the pubUc treasury. 

Jefferson's bill fell through, but it was a seed sown 
in good ground. In 1796 a law permitting counties 
to establish tax-supported schools was passed, and 
although it was not put into effect, it paved the way 
for the establishment of a "literary" (school) fund in 
1810. In 1816, when this fund had grown to a million 
dollars, those in charge of it recommended "a system 



388 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of public education, including a university, to be called 
the University of Virginia, and such additional colleges, 
academies, and schools as should diffuse the benefits 
of education through the commonwealth." Although 
the legislature was not prepared to adopt this revised 
educational system of Jefferson, it voted (iSiS) an 
appropriation of forty-five thousand dollars from the 
income of the literary fund to be used by the counties 
to send poor children to a proper school. 

This appropriation really delayed, as it did in other 
States, the establishment of common schools at public 
expense. The reasons are evident; it conveyed the 
impression that public education was a "charity," thus 
offending at the same time both the poor, who did not 
like to be looked upon as paupers, and the well-to-do, 
who failed to see how it benefited them at all. More- 
over, there were a hundred thousand children in ques- 
tion, for whose accommodation it would be quite im- 
possible to build schools and employ teachers with so 
small a sum of money. Under these conditions, and 
because it was almost impossible to secure graduates 
of academies or colleges to teach such schools, it became 
necessary to place most of the children in such schools 
as already existed. To make matters worse, the com- 
missioners to whom the difficult task was committed, 
were often incompetent political appointees. Never- 
theless, during the twenty years that the law remained 
in force, the cause of public education was making 
steady progress. The appropriations became steadily 
larger, the school terms longer, and the number of 
pupils willing to take advantage of the funds kept 
growing. Thus, although the majority of the school 
children still attended denominational, private, and 



THE UNITED STATES 389 

field schools, sentiment in favor of state funds for the 
support of common schools was rapidly taking shape 
in the public mind, and, by the time Virginia was half 
a century old as a State, she was almost ready to ac- 
cept the system completely. 

Other Southern States. — In the formation of state 
constitutions North Carolina appears to have been 
the first of the Southern colonies to include a provision 
looking toward the establishment of common schools. 
The constitution was drawn up in 1776, and in 181 7 
Judge Archibald Murphy, by request of the legislature, 
submitted an elaborate and highly creditable plan for 
public schools. According to this plan the children 
of the poor were not only to be educated but also 
maintained. This ''maintenance" provision defeated 
the bill, but in 1825 it resulted in the legislative estab- 
lishment of a literary or school fund, the income of 
which was to be used for the support of public schools. 
Early in her statehood Georgia, by providing for land 
endowments for schools, looked toward the ultimate 
establishment of a state system to be known as the 
"University of Georgia." The creation of a perma- 
nent school fund followed, and the sentiment in favor 
of public education continued to grow. South Carolina 
began as early as 181 1 to make yearly appropriations 
of money for the establishment of ''free schools" 
throughout the State, the number in each legislative 
district to equal those of its representatives. Un- 
fortunately, legislative representation was based on 
property qualifications, and so the schools came to be 
looked upon as "pauper schools." Although this con- 
fusion injured the growth of sentiment in favor of 
public education, it could not prevent the steady in- 



390 fflSTORY OF EDUCATION 

crease of appropriations and the final triumph of the 
cause. In 1816 Maryland followed the lead of Vir- 
ginia by subsidizing the education of the poor, and in 
1825 by passing a law permitting counties to establish 
common schools. 

The transition from ecclesiastic and exclusive to 
state-supported and universal education was very 
much the same in all the Southern commonwealths. 
In all of them there was some sort of co-operation be- 
tween statesmen and friends of education, so that be- 
fore half a century of statehood had elapsed, they had 
begun to create literary funds, subsidize schooling for 
the poor, pass permissive laws for establishing public 
schools. More than all this, Baltimore, Charleston, 
Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Mobile, New Orleans, 
and other large cities had actually established systems 
of public schools. In most of the older colonies the 
classical grammar-schools of the aristocracy had largely 
given way to the more democratic, progressive, and 
non-sectarian academies, and, while the various de- 
nominations continued to rely on their own higher in- 
stitutions of learning, these also became more and more 
progressive in function and curriculum. A number of 
the Southern States extended their support of public 
education to higher institutions. 

Middle States. — In the Middle States the conflict 
between private interests and sectarianism, on the one 
side, and the champions in favor of public education, 
on the other, was often extremely bitter. 

New York. — The excellent parochial system of the 
Dutch Reformed lost its efiiciency when on their 
arrival in 1674 the English refused to continue the 
policy of public stipends. It became customary for 



THE UNITED STATES 391 

the better classes, as before stated, to depend upon the 
clergy or tutors for the education of their children, or, 
if they could afford it, to send them to Europe, During 
the century, however, that thus intervened between 
the coming of the English and the Revolution, a number 
of secondary schools, partly supported by gratuities 
from the State, were organized, and in 1754 King's 
College, now Columbia, was founded. As for ele- 
mentary schools, the few that existed were either rem- 
nants of the parish system, or private ventures, or 
the creation of philanthropic societies. 

The Revolution taught the various elements of the 
population the valuable lesson of a common cause, 
so that "sentiment in favor of public education began 
to prevail over vested interests and sectarian jealousies." 
One governor after another called upon the legisla- 
ture to establish common schools. The first legislative 
attempt to organize a system of pubUc education was 
made in 1787, but it did not include elementary schools. 
In 1789 land was set apart in each township for com- 
mon schools, and in 1795 grants were arranged for 
towns. In 1805 incomes from land were set apart as 
a school fund, which was to be used when the yearly 
income was sufficient. 

In 181 2 it was arranged to put the common schools 
under the control of a state superintendent, after 
which rapid improvement in the raising of taxes and 
the administration of schools followed. Unfortunately, 
the academies remained under the control of a Board 
of Regents, and the State, instead of establishing 
normal schools, looked to the academies (private sec- 
ondary institutions) for the professional training of 
teachers. In short, although the State of New York 



392 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

started the first state system of public education, it 
was only after great delay that she became able to 
co-ordinate all elements into a completely free and 
consistent system, while in the meantime her great 
cities had troubles of their own. 

New York City. — State funds were granted not only 
to academies but also to societies organized to pro- 
mote elementary education. The city of New York 
furnishes the most celebrated case. Here, at the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century, there were thou- 
sands of children for whom the church and the private 
schools could not provide adequate facilities. In 1805 
a body of philanthropists, headed by DeWitt Clinton, 
organized the "Free School Society of New York City," 
to provide adequate additional elementary school facili- 
ties for the children in question. The State promptly 
came to the assistance of the society, adding public 
grants to city grants. In 1826 a new charter was 
obtained from the State, changing the name to "Public 
School Society of New York" and granting permission 
to charge a fee for children whose parents could afford 
it. Parents who felt that they "were too poor to pay 
and too proud to confess their poverty" now no longer 
sent their children to school, thus causing such a fall 
in the attendance that the fee was abolished after a 
few years of trial. Then the society prospered and was 
rapidly gaining control of elementary education. In 
1842, however, after the city council had refused sev- 
eral church schools a share in the public funds, the 
Catholics, "on the ground that the non-sectarian in- 
struction given in the schools of the society was really 
Protestant," took the fight to the State legislature. 
The trouble was settled the same year by the legislative 



THE UNITED STATES 393 

establishment of a board of education for New York 
City, to be elected by the people. The board was to 
control the use of the school funds, and no portion of 
such funds was to go to any school not under the 
management of the board. Buffalo, Utica, Oswego, and 
several other cities had similar experiences. 

Pennsylvania. — In Pennsylvania state-supported 
"poor schools" gave place to state-maintained common 
schools only after prolonged and bitter agitation. 
The framers of the new constitution (1790) wrestled 
with the problem of public education; but, in spite of 
the support of the cause by influential men like Frank- 
lin and Benjamin Rush, the legislature permitted only 
Timothy Pickering's celebrated "gratis" clause to 
stand. This compromise clause provided for the 
establishment of schools throughout the State "in such 
a manner that the poor may be taught gratis." Even 
at that it was not until 1802, 1804, and 1809 that the 
legislature passed acts to make this permissive law 
effective, and then, disappointing as it was to the friends 
of popular education, it was arranged that, instead of 
establishing new institutions, the State should subsi- 
dize private, church, and neighborhood schools, thus 
incurring less expense. To this end the income of 
sixty thousand acres of land appropriated for "aiding 
public schools" was now applied. 

The friends of public education would not let the 
matter rest. Governors and other prominent men took 
it upon themselves in season and out of season to plead 
the cause of free common schools. That the new idea 
would prevail in the end became evident enough in 
18 1 8, when Philadelphia, under special act of the legis- 
lature, became "the first school district of Pennsyl- 



394 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

vania, with power to establish Joseph Lancaster's 
monitorial system at public expense." The system was 
put into operation by the famous Englishman himself, 
and the experiment attracted much attention. Sev- 
eral years later the special legislation was extended to 
five more districts, and in 1824 the State passed a law 
permitting any community to establish free schools. 
This law was repealed, however, before it could go 
into effect. 

In the meantime "The Pennsylvania Society for the 
Promotion of Common Schools" had been formed. 
This society demonstrated in a series of memorials ad- 
dressed to the legislature that the "pauper school law" 
then in force was a bad piece of business, and suc- 
ceeded in 1828 in securing the establishment of a state 
fund for state schools. Finally, in 1834, under Gov- 
ernor Wolf, they succeeded, after a vigorous educational 
campaign, in securing the passage of the free-school 
bill drawn up by Senator Breck. This "act to estab- 
lish a general system of education by common schools" 
was to be put into operation through the general 
superintendency of the secretary of state, and seventy- 
five thousand dollars was to be appropriated annually 
from the state fund for the purpose. The city wards, 
boroughs, and districts which were erected as school 
districts were to share in these appropriations provided 
they levied local taxes for schools. The enactment 
of this law pleased the northern counties, settled 
chiefly by New Englanders, and the western counties, 
where the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians constituted a 
large proportion of the population, but it met with 
bitter opposition in eastern ("old") Pennsylvania, 
where the Quakers and Germans looked upon the new 



THE UNITED STATES 395 

movement as the death-blow to their own parish 
schools. The new law was also opposed by the people 
who could not see why they should help to pay for the 
education of "other people's children." The oppo- 
nents of the law hoped to win votes enough in the next 
legislature to repeal the law. This campaign of preju- 
dice and selfishness might have succeeded had not 
Thaddeus Stevens, afterward known as the ''Great 
Commoner," stepped into the breach with matchless 
eloquence in the nick of time, April ii, 1835. The 
weak features of the law were corrected, a larger an- 
nual appropriation guaranteed, and the system put 
into operation by Thomas Burrowes, secretary of state 
under Governor Ritner. Although in the meantime 
the cause of pubHc education had gained many friends, 
only half of the school districts promptly availed them- 
selves of their rights, and it was not until years later 
that this permissive law was finally accepted by all the 
school districts. 

The cause of common schools suffered from similar 
hindrances in the sister States of New Jersey and Dela- 
ware, where school funds were created for the educa- 
tion of the poor, but through the agencies of existing 
church and private schools. Here, too, permissive laws 
were passed, but accepted only after much opposition 
and serious delay. 

New England States. — The district schools, or 
"divided" schools, to which, as before noticed, the 
New England "town schools" so largely gave place 
before the Revolution, presently furnished the motive 
for the transition to state systems of public schools. 

Massachusetts. — The divided town system had come 
into existence as a convenience under local necessity, 



396 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

but in 1789 the custom became law. Further legal 
sanctions permitted the districts to levy taxes and hold 
property. In 1827 they were granted the right to 
choose a committeeman, whose function it was to be 
to appoint the teacher and control the school property. 
In course of time the choice of the committeeman, the 
site, and the teacher became a matter of petty jealousies, 
which frequently resulted in low tax rates, short terms, 
and wretched work. 

As the expense of maintaining divided schools in- 
creased, the old-time grammar-school, for which a 
hundred householders were to provide, became im- 
possible except in the larger towns, and fell out of use 
before the close of the eighteenth century. Under 
these conditions "academies" (private secondary 
schools), progressive in spirit, were founded for those 
who could afford such opportunities, and in 1797 the 
custom was legalized. At the time when the state 
system of schools came into existence, almost half a 
century later, no less than fifty academies had become 
the financial proteges of Massachusetts alone. 

In the meantime the glaring inefficiency of the dis- 
trict system became more and more evident to thought- 
ful men, and vigorous campaigns for the betterment of 
the situation were carried on in the press and from the 
platform. 

Probably the man to whom Massachusetts owes the 
inauguration of the state system was John G, Carter, 
a member of the State legislature. It was through his 
influence that a number of laws were passed which 
paved the way for the final act. "In 1826 every town 
was required to choose a school committee to super- 
vise the schools of the town, select text-books, and cer- 



THE UNITED STATES 397 

tify teachers, though the district committeeman could 
still appoint the teacher. In 1834 a state school fund 
was established, in which a town could share on con- 
dition that it raise by tax a dollar for each child of 
school age. Carter's efforts culminated in 1837 in the 
passage of a bill for the establishment of a state board 
of education to consist of eight members. It was to 
have no executive powers, but was to collect informa- 
tion upon school affairs and recommend changes to 
the legislature. Horace Mann was elected its first 
secretary, and with his name is associated the reform 
of the district school." 

Other New England States. — The course of events 
leading up to a state system of common schools was 
very much the same in all the New England States, 
except Rhode Island. In Rhode Island the "volun- 
tary organization of education continued throughout 
the eighteenth century." A law was passed in 1800 
permitting each town to maintain "one or more free 
schools," but only Providence availed itself of the per- 
mission. It was not until 1828 that a state system 
supported by local taxes was finally inaugurated. 

Westward. — Immigration from the older common- 
wealths followed parallels of latitude. The northern 
parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were thus occupied 
mostly by people from New England and New York, 
and the southern parts by immigrants from Virginia, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and other States in 
which public education had not yet become fully or- 
ganized. Michigan, however, was settled almost 
wholly by immigrants from New England, New York, 
and northern Ohio. 

These migration facts determined the course of 



398 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

events in the development of education. Michigan,' 
whose settlers had come from States in which public 
education was already in vogue, was the only one of 
the four in question to escape from prolonged conflict 
of ideals. The federal " Ordinance of 1787," organizing 
the "Northwest Territory," to which all these States 
belonged, had provided a firm foundation for public 
education, but the difficulties of conquering the virgin 
wilderness and building new homes, the problems of 
transportation, and the presence of petty political and 
sectarian jealousies, seriously delayed the development 
of state systems. In due time, however, the provisions 
of this ordinance became the general policy not only 
of the "Northwest" but also in the States carved out 
of the "Louisiana Purchase." This ordinance divided 
the territory into townships six miles square, and sec- 
tion sixteen of the thirty-six sections into which each 
township was divided was set apart for the support 
of public schools. Later two or three townships were 
set apart for the support of a state university. Prob- 
lems of state and local supervision, together with that 
of local taxation, were not settled in most of the 
States in question much before the close of the first 
third of the nineteenth century. 

^ THE GREAT AWAKENING, 1837-1876 

It was a great step forward in the march of events 
when the various States of the American Union had 
committed themselves to the policy of public education, 
as most of those in existence before 1837 had done. 
Much, however, that was desirable still remained not 
only not done but not even in mind. The most serious 



THE UNITED STATES 399 

thing in the situation was the lack of appreciation, the 
stupid apathy, the unpardonable indifference of the 
general public. It is not hard to account for this 
arrest of progress. Vested interests whose incomes 
would be cut off continued to press their claims upon 
the public; the common people for whom philan- 
thropic societies had provided charity schools were 
afraid of local taxation; the church people long wedded 
to the parish school were afraid of the secular schools; 
there were plenty of people so unpatriotic in their self- 
ish possessions that they still resented the democratic 
responsibility of paying taxes for the education of the 
children of other people. It would take time to over- 
come these traditions, and still more time to come to 
the realization that, in order to secure actual efficiency, 
"permissive laws" must give way to mandatory laws 
in the organization, supervision, and control of schools. 
Men of vision were needed — vigorous agitation was 
imperative — wise solutions of problems were essential. 
The course of events proves that all of these were 
ready. Although others had paved the way in every 
section of our country, men like Horace Mann and 
Henry Barnard deserve foremost credit for the great 
awakening. 

HORACE MANN 

It is generally conceded that John G. Carter, through 
whose legal genius the legislature of Massachusetts 
organized a "board of education" in 1837, made the 
educational career of Horace Mann possible, and that 
Henry Barnard, through his Journal of Education, 
interpreted the movement scientifically and gave it 
national impulse, but that Mann himself, through his 



400 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

spiritual vigor, roused the general public of America 
from its lethargy into its first genuine appreciation of 
state-supported, state-controlled common schools. 

In the Making. — Horace Mann (i 796-1859) was 
born of humble parentage at Franklin, Mass., and 
brought up in poverty and toil. He never ceased to 
regret that he had missed a happy childhood. Eager as 
he was to get an education, he was obliged to acquire 
the elements in a wretched district school, which he 
could attend only a few weeks every winter. Pres- 
ently he began to devour the histories and religious 
books which Benjamin Franklin had donated to the 
town library, after which, fortunately, he acquired a 
start in Latin and Greek from an itinerant school- 
teacher, and, at the age of twenty, entered the sopho- 
more class of Brown University, from which he was 
graduated at the head of his class. Later he studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar at twenty-seven. 
He rose rapidly and in 1823 was elected to the State 
legislature, where his ability attracted much attention. 
Accordingly, in 1837, when the legislature through 
Carter's inspiration had created the ''Board of Educa- 
tion," and was therefore regarded as the logical candi- 
date, Horace Mann was appointed secretary of the 
board. This position practically made him superin- 
tendent of schools. It was to be his function, as offi- 
cially defined, "to collect information of the actual 
condition of the common schools and other means of 
popular education, and diffuse as widely as possible 
throughout every part of the commonwealth informa- 
tion of the most approved methods of arranging the 
studies and conducting the education of the young, to 
the end that all children in this commonwealth who 



THE UNITED STATES 401 

depend upon the common schools for instruction may 
have the best education which these schools can be 
made to impart." He accepted the appointment not 
because it would bring him financial remuneration or 
personal glory but because he believed it to be a great 
opportunity to serve the cause of humanity, and be- 
cause, as he afterward himself said, he looked upon 
the common schools "as the way that God had chosen 
for the reformation of the world." 

Condition of the District Schools. — In 1837 the dis- 
trict schools of Massachusetts were only colorless rem- 
nants of the vigorous town schools to which the colony 
had originally pledged itself. The self-control to which 
the districts had attained was often vitiated by class 
spirit. People who could afford it patronized private 
schools, thus relegating the district schools to the 
unenviable state of "pauper schools." The school- 
houses were unsightly, the teachers poorly equipped, 
and the term short. This wretched condition of things 
stirred Mann's soul. He wished "to restore the good 
old custom," as his wife, a most faithful biographer, 
tells us, "of having the rich and the poor educated to- 
gether; and for that end he desired to make the public 
schools as good as schools could be made, so that the 
rich and the poor might not necessarily be coincident 
with the educated and the ignorant." 

Methods of Reform. — Mann recognized the difficulty 
of his task. He saw that he must conciliate men of 
influence, break down prejudice, and rouse the great 
body of the commonwealth out of its apathy. To this 
end he gathered up all his resources and devoted all 
his energies. Among his most effective methods were 
the lecture tours which he made through the State, 



402 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

for which his intellectual brilliancy and his eloquence 
specially fitted him; the Annual Reports, of which he 
issued twelve, and in which he discussed all the phases 
of education with most illuminating efiiciency, and 
which were widely read not only in Massachusetts 
but also in other States; and a Common School Journal, 
in which he reported actual conditions and the en- 
deavors which the Board of Education was putting 
forward to facilitate reforms. 

Normal Schools. — Mann was profoundly convinced 
that among the most important agencies in his proposed 
school reforms were competent teachers. Accordingly, 
in 1839, encouraged by the private gift of ten thousand 
dollars, to which the legislature added a like amount, 
he established the first normal school in America at 
historic Lexington. This was followed by several 
similar institutions, all conducted with much efficiency, 
in different parts of the State. The one founded at 
Bridgewater was dedicated in 1846. In his address 
Mann said what every friend of normal schools may 
well ponder: "I believe normal schools to be a new in- 
strumentality in the advancement of the race. I be- 
lieve that, without them, free schools themselves would 
be shorn of their strength and their healing power, 
and would at length become charity schools, and thus 
die out in fact and in form. Neither the art of print- 
ing, nor the trial by jury, nor a free press, nor free 
suffrage can long exist to any beneficial and salutary 
purpose without schools for the training of teachers; 
for if the character and the qualifications of teachers 
be allowed to degenerate, the free schools will become 
pauper schools, and the pauper schools will produce 
pauper souls, and the free press will become a false and 



THE UNITED STATES 403 

licentious press, and ignorant voters will become venal 
voters, and through the medium and guise of republican 
forms an oligarchy of profligate and flagitious men will 
govern the land; nay, the universal diffusion and ul- 
timate triumph of all-glorious Christianity itself must 
await the time when knowledge shall be diffused among 
men through the instrumentality of good schools." 

Controversies. — The ardor with which Mann con- 
tended for common schools, from which all sectional 
and sectarian spirit should be abolished, exposed him 
to the charge on the part of ecclesiastical bodies that 
to his influence as a schoolman was due to a large ex- 
tent the low esteem in which faith and religion were 
held at the time. These animosities were carried into 
the legislature, where early in his work determined 
efforts were made to block his career by abolishing the 
Board of Education. In these efforts his enemies 
failed ignominiously. 

The most famous controversy in which Mann be- 
came involved through his uncompromising attitude 
toward all forms of educational inefficiency was the 
prolonged one with the "masters" of the Boston 
"grammar-schools." It came about in the following 
manner. On a trip to Europe in 1843 he had devoted 
some six weeks to the inspection of schools, often 
spending whole days in one school. He was so pleased 
with the Pestalozzian spirit and methods of the schools 
that, on his return, he reviewed his experiences at 
length in his seventh Annual Report. Among other 
things he had noticed especially that the teachers in- 
variably taught without a book in their hand, except 
in reading or spell'ng; that they always stood rather 
than sat when teaching a class; and that the pupils 



404 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

were neither punished nor in fear of punishment. 
Mann had not made any direct accusations, but the 
Boston masters, whom the shoe fitted exactly, took up 
the cudgel against him in a most vituperative pamph- 
let. The controversy which thus began prolonged 
itself for several years, when, as was to be expected, 
the Boston schools were subjected to thorough inspec- 
tion, all incompetent masters dismissed, and a more 
humane discipline inaugurated, thus not only vindi- 
cating but also strengthening the indomitable secretary. 

Estimate. — In his eleventh Annual Report Secretary 
Mann was able to call attention to a number of grati- 
fying results. The rural schools had been greatly im- 
proved; the towns and cities had introduced the graded 
system; the school terms had been lengthened; the 
attendance had been greatly improved; increased 
state appropriations had been granted; three normal 
schools had been established, and the teachers had 
become more efficient. 

He might have said much more, for he had prac- 
tically recreated the schools of his State, giving them 
a spirit of democracy that was far more Uberal than 
anything to which America had as yet aspired, and 
the cause of education in general a spiritual impulse 
that was presently to be felt throughout our land. 

At length, however, the strain of his position, in- 
tensified by the controversies in which, as a true re- 
former, he was compelled to involve himself, began to 
tell upon the secretary, and he resigned from office in 
1849. He filled the unexpired term of John Quincy 
Adams in Congress, and was nominated for governor 
in 1852, but accepted the presidency of Antioch Col- 
lege, Ohio, and, after giving a splendid account of 



THE UNITED STATES 405 

himself, died there in 1859. The closing words of his 
last baccalaureate sermon at Antioch embodied the 
spirit which animated his whole career. "I beseech 
you," said he, ''to treasure up in your hearts these my 
parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won 
some victory for humanity." 

HENRY BARNARD 

The literary and philosophic exponent of the "great 
awakening" was Henry Barnard (1811-1900). 

In the Making. — Henry Barnard came of a cultured 
Connecticut family. He was born at Hartford, and, 
after an excellent preparatory training, entered Yale 
College, where his brilliancy attracted much atten- 
tion. After his graduation in 1830, he began the study 
of law, but, on the advice of President Day of Yale, 
took charge of an academy at Wellsboro, Pa., for a 
year. In 1835 he went to Europe to make a special 
study of social and educational conditions. He was 
much impressed by the work of Fellenberg at Hofwyl, 
and even more by the labors of some of Pestalozzi's 
other disciples both in Switzerland and Germany. 

Official Services. — Among many other gifts, Bar- 
nard had the genius of organization. On his return 
from Europe in 1837, he was elected to the Connecticut 
legislature. This body, accepting the measure which 
he formulated, created a board of education, and in- 
duced him to take the office of secretary. The reforms 
which he instituted during the four years of his in- 
cumbency closely resembled those of Horace Mann. 
In the same year in which Mann established the first 
American normal school, Barnard founded the first 



406 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

teachers' institute. Soon afterward, like Mann, he 
founded a School Journal. Through his inspiration the 
legislature undertook a general and salutary revision 
and codification of school laws. The " school societies," 
or local district independencies which he disturbed 
through his revision, resented the invasion of their 
cherished rights, and he lost his office. 

In 1843 the government of Rhode Island persuaded 
Barnard to become the first commissioner of common 
schools for that State. He now duplicated the work 
which he had undertaken for Connecticut, but with 
much less opposition, and when, six years later, on 
account of failing health, he had to relinquish this 
office, "the State no longer regarded wilfulness and 
personal opinion as praiseworthy independence, and 
he could honestly claim that Rhode Island had one 
of the best school systems in the United States." 

In 1 85 1 Connecticut recalled Barnard, making him 
superintendent of schools and principal of the state 
normal district at New Britain, which had been estab- 
lished through the efforts of his admirers. The great 
body of trained teachers which he now sent forth 
quickened education in every part. He consolidated 
and simplified the organization and administration of 
public education more completely, virtually giving the 
system its present consistency. 

U. S. Commissioner of Education. — For many years 
Barnard had agitated the importance of "a federal 
agency for the collection and publication of trust- 
worthy information and statistics" in education. It 
was due largely to his efforts that the national govern- 
ment, in 1867, established the Bureau of Education at 
Washington. He became its first commissioner, and 



THE UNITED STATES 407 

organized the policy which his distinguished successors 
have so effectively carried out. 

Literary Services. — What America, in her "great 
awakening," needed even more than organizing genius 
was a systematic exposition of the principles and 
methods to which such educational reformers as Co- 
menius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel had com- 
mitted the educational practices of Europe. Henry 
Barnard proved to be the man of the hour. As early 
as his second official connection with Connecticut, he 
had conceived the idea of an Avierican Journal of 
Education. He first broached the subject in 1854 at 
a meeting in Washington of the "American Association 
for the Advancement of Education." The idea was 
applauded, but financial support seemed impossible. 
Presently Barnard undertook the task himself, devoting 
his own fortune and a great part of his life to the suc- 
cess of the journal. It grew into thirty-one octavo 
volumes, which constitute a monumental cyclopaedia 
of education. It is almost impossible to think of any 
important phase of education — its nature, history, and 
agencies — that has not received expert attention in 
his journal. Among the many special treatises which, 
apart from the journal, Barnard produced in his busy 
career are his works on "Pestalozzi and Pestalozzian- 
ism," "Kindergarten and Child Culture," "German 
Schools and German Teachers," "American Pedagogy," 
"Enghsh Pedagogy," "National Education in Europe," 
"Normal Schools." 

Estimate. — It would be difficult to find Barnard's 
peer as a source of information in the study of edu- 
cational reforms and reformers, and the systems arising 
from these both in Europe and America. More than 



408 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

that, "practically every reform introduced into Ameri- 
can education down to 1880 owes much of its success 
to Barnard's support." 

RESULTS OF THE GREAT AWAKENING 

Inasmuch as the apathy from which the general 
public had been awakened was originally different in 
its causes, the awakening itself was correspondingly 
alike or different as the case might be. 

New England States. — In the New England States, 
where the town system had become a system of petty 
school societies, or local district independencies, it was 
necessary for the champions of centralization to foster 
school funds, and, by means of wise distribution, 
gradually to overcome all forms of opposition to local 
taxes. In the solution of this matter the successors of 
Mann and Barnard in Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island were singularly fortunate, though 
in a few instances the process was not complete before 
about 1880. 

Increased state aid to public high schools gradually 
made successful competition impossible for the acad- 
emies and forced private secondary education from 
the field, and almost all the large cities provided for 
superintendents of schools. 

Under the impulse of central supervision and State 
appropriations the various localities improved their 
school buildings, equipments, salaries to teachers, 
length of terms, and the status of the teachers. 

While sparseness of population and poverty of re- 
sources delayed progress in Maine, New Hampshire, 
and Vermont, the course of events led to the same 
general results. 



THE UNITED STATES 409 

In the Middle States. — The "great awakening" 
was not confined to the New England States. 

New York. — In the State of New York centraliza- 
tion in the organization and control of education was 
delayed by limiting the jurisdiction of the "Board of 
Regents," created in 1784, to public education above 
the elementary schools, thus permitting unfortunate 
independencies. The most serious delay due to this 
Hmitation was the power which the "Public School 
Society" acquired over elementary education in the 
city of New York, where the system of elementary 
public schools created in 1842 was compelled to com- 
pete with the schools of the society until 1853, when 
it finally turned over its funds to the city board and 
went out of existence. 

In the meantime the appointment of a state super- 
intendent, in 181 2, was a great step forward toward 
central control, and, although for a time, from 1821 
until 1854, this ofiice was combined with that of secre- 
tary of state, much was accomphshed for the cause of 
the pubHc schools. 

The academies continued to receive state aid, thus 
delaying the complete organization of secondary edu- 
cation, but from 1844, when a state normal school 
was established, the academies gradually lost their 
power. Opposition to local taxation finally also gave 
way, and in 1867 the State abolished tuition fees, thus 
making elementary education entirely free. 

Pennsylvania. — In spite of all that progressive gov- 
ernors and statesmen could do, selfish and sectarian 
prejudice prevented the salutary permissive law of 
1834 from going into general effect, and it was not 
until 1854 that the recalcitrant school districts — about 



410 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

two hundred of them — were finally compelled by law 
to establish public schools according to the new pro- 
visions. 

In the meantime, however, this long-delayed result 
was sure to follow, for the cause had able champions 
in a number of progressive governors and other states- 
men. The State was particularly fortunate in the 
selection of the first state superintendent, the inimitable 
Thomas H. Burrovves. He was a born organizer, 
gifted with rare wisdom, indomitable courage, and fine 
tact. It was, however, not until 1854 that the state 
educational department became absolutely indepen- 
dent under the care of a superintendent. This ''De- 
partment of Public Instruction" centralizes and co- 
ordinates all public education in the State, and the 
same results are accomplished for separate counties, 
cities, and districts by a cohort of efficient superin- 
tendents, principals, and inspectors. 

In 1857 provision was made for a complete system 
of normal schools. They were to be established at first 
by private enterprise, but soon obtained state aid, 
and in 1877, when ten of them were in operation, this 
aid had become very considerable. There are now 
thirteen, and most of them have been taken over by 
the State completely. 

The "New Code" of 191 1 provides for the most 
complete and extensive organization of public educa- 
tion, and includes a "State Board" intrusted with 
large powers. 

Secondary schools, connecting with the university 
and with life, have become absolutely free to both 
sexes, thus gradually driving the private academies 
from the field. 



THE UNITED STATES 411 

New Jersey. — The "great awakening" came rather 
late to New Jersey. There was a state fund for 
"pauper schools," but not for public schools until 
1838. It was not until 1848 that control was central- 
ized in a state superintendent. Since then great prog- 
ress has been made, so that to-day the State is justly 
proud of her splendid system. 

Delaware. — The little State on the Delaware has 
been very conservative, and failed to live up to her 
early "permissive laws." It was not until after the 
Civil War that superin tendencies were established, and 
then the question remained unsolved until 191 2. Since 
then Delaware has made much progress in line with 
her sister States. 

The Northwest. — In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
where, as we have seen, the founders had come with 
their diverse and conflicting colonial conceptions, the 
compromising process usually took the form of very 
active campaigns. Each State was fortunate in the 
leaders who championed the cause of state-supported, 
state-controlled education — Samuel Galloway in Ohio, 
Caleb Mills in Indiana,, and Ninian W. Edwards in 
Illinois. In their methods of campaign these men re- 
mind us strongly of Horace Mann, and, as in his case, 
they won in spite of sectarian and vested interests. 
At first only permissive laws could pass, and private 
schools continued to share in public funds. Never- 
theless, these defects were all remedied before the Civil 
War broke upon the country. Michigan, settled chiefly 
by New Englanders, escaped these delays, and made 
very rapid progress from the very year when the con- 
stitution was adopted, namely, 1837, providing at once 
for permanent school funds, local taxation, and a state 



412 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

university. All these States have organized complete 
systems of central control, state normal schools, and 
state universities. 

In the rest of the Western States the course of events 
was much the same. Each State, upon admission 
to the Union, "received the sixteenth section of 
school land and two townships for a university, and, 
in the States admitted since 1848, the endowment of 
schools has been increased to two sections," while 
Texas, an independent republic from 1836 to 1845, 
"stipulated before becoming a State that it should 
retain sole possession of its public lands, and has set 
aside for education nearly two and a half millions of 
acres." In other words, each State at once provided 
by constitution for the organization of a state school 
system, including university privileges, and arranged 
for their financial support. Such obstacles as sec- 
tarianism, vested private interests, and the confusion 
of public education with pauper education— things 
which had given the earlier commonwealths so much 
trouble — seldom seriously delayed or injured progress. 

The Southern States. — The educational awakening 
which swept over the North and West found the South 
too depressed to respond at once, for the coming con- 
flict disturbed the spiritual atmosphere long before it 
really came, and when it did come it paralyzed the 
resources of the fair Southland too completely to make 
recovery possible at once. 

In some States, however, there was noticeable prog- 
ress almost up to the Civil War. Several States had 
provided for common schools by permissive laws, and 
the attendance had been rapidly growing. Prominent 
men were beginning to take special interest in public 



THE UNITED STATES 413 

education, and several conventions called for the pur- 
pose of considering the establishment of state systems 
had convened. As the war approached, all else became 
of secondary importance, and when it was over the 
South and her resources lay crushed to the earth. 

Hope and courage, however, soon returned, and, 
realizing that if she would arise from her fallen estate 
and attain to the greatness to which she had a right 
to aspire she must educate her masses, several States — 
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia — 
organized school systems as early as 1865, and in other 
States efforts were made to build up systems of free 
education even in the harsh and unhappy days of the 
reconstruction (1867-1876). 

The poverty of the South made it difficult to provide 
schools for two million children, and this difficulty 
was increased by the moral and social necessity of 
establishing separate schools for the whites and blacks. 
The fear that a "reconstruction congress," with mil- 
lennial ideals of universal brotherhood, might try to 
force "mixed schools" upon the white population 
gradually disappeared. One great help to the South 
was the founding in 1867 of the Peabody Educational 
Fund of two million dollars, to be used to stimulate 
local efforts in education. When the agencies for the 
distribution of these funds found them inadequate, 
they appealed to Congress, and through these appeals 
more than ten million dollars have been granted to the 
support of schools. 

Since 1890 the "New South" has made great prog- 
ress in education. Progressive governors are taking a 
hand in education. The politics which for some years 
crept into the appointment of state superintendents 



414 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

has yielded to democratic ideals. The teachers are 
receiving professional training of a high order, and the 
outlook is most promising. 

EXPANSION 

After the Civil War the policy of public education 
found practically no opposition, and all sections of 
the Union strove to extend the inestimable advantages 
of state-supported and state-controlled systems to 
the general public. In this vast expansion the federal 
government has appropriated millions of acres of land 
directly to the States for the support of elementary 
schools and for the special support of higher institu- 
tions offering courses in agriculture and technical edu- 
cation, including state universities. The States them- 
selves have appropriated vast sums of money to vari- 
ous geographical districts to stimulate local effort. 
The American people as a whole have become convinced 
that the political, social, and economic destiny of our 
great country must be closely bound up with free, uni- 
versal, and compulsory education. 

NATIONAL SYSTEM 

As might have been expected, the spirit of democracy 
which animated the founders of the American republic 
continued to animate the founders of the separate 
States, so that these resemble each other not only in 
their general structure but especially also in the edu- 
cational systems for which their constitutions made 
provision. Hence it has come to pass that in the gen- 
eral process of expansion, not only before the Civil 



THE UNITED STATES 415 

War but also afterward, the state systems of education, 
North, South, and West, have continued to range 
themselves more and more completely into -a corporate, 
consistent whole, which, with pardonable pride, we 
may well call our national system. 

This result has been greatly promoted by the crea- 
tion of our federal Bureau of Education in 1867 — 
thanks to the genius for educational statesmanship of 
Henry Barnard — for although the expert collation, 
digestion, and distribution of educational information 
for which this bureau is designed is not in any sense 
mandatory, it has the effect of inspiring and co-ordi- 
nating educational efforts and educational experiments. 

The state control of schools is vested in a state 
superintendent, who, though not officially subject to 
the U. S. Commissioner of Education, is nevertheless 
tacitly subject to the national co-ordinating policy. 
This policy is further supported by county superin- 
tendents, city superintendents, and district superin- 
tendents — all subordinate to each other in descending 
series, but vested locally with adequate supervising 
power. 

It is to be ascribed largely to this animating spirit of 
co-ordination that all state-supported schools have 
now come to occupy the relation of rungs in a ladder. 

Elementary Schools. — While many localities, es- 
pecially the larger cities, have incorporated the kinder- 
garten into the state system, most States require the 
child to attend from the age of six or seven for seven 
or eight years. In most States the elementary curric- 
ulum includes nature, agriculture, handicrafts, civics, 
morals, singing, and physiology, in connection with 
language, drawing, arithmetic, and history. The 



416 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

States now furnish free text-books and other school 
supplies, the school term ranges from seven to ten 
months a year, minimum salary laws and often insur- 
ance laws protect the teacher, normal schools supported 
and controlled by the States equip the teacher profes- 
sionally, while institutes partly supported by the States 
serve as a stimulus to continued improvement through 
reading circles, libraries, etc. A number of States now 
provide continuation schools for those who, for eco- 
nomic or other reasons, are obliged to leave school at 
the age limit. 

Secondary Education. — Each State supports free, 
.though not compulsory, secondary schools, open to 
both sexes, sometimes not coeducational, and offer- 
ing courses covering from two to four years. The 
curriculum generally includes Latin, one or more living 
languages, together with several of the natural sciences, 
usually physics, chemistry, and botany; the college 
entrance requirements in English literature, including 
from four to six classics, supported by rhetoric; manual 
training supported by drawing; agriculture, bookkeep- 
ing, history, civics, physiology, morals, singing, and 
mathematics. Electives looking toward normal school 
and college entrance are often permissible. The States 
generally look to the normal schools and colleges for the 
adequate supply of expert and departmental teachers. 
School buildings complying with the requirements of 
modern sanitary and artistic school architecture are 
commonly supplied with physical and chemical labo- 
ratories, general and supplementary libraries, often 
with auditoriums, gymnasiums, and other facilities. 
Spacious playgrounds are often found, with county 
"field days" as powerful stimuli. Lecture courses and 



THE UNITED STATES 417 

community-centre movements are becoming more and 
more frequent concomitants of these state-supported 
secondary schools. 

Higher Education. — Every State supports a state 
college, to which, under prescribed conditions, both 
sexes are admitted free. Here technical courses cover- 
ing a wide range of vocations, such as agriculture, en- 
gineering, commerce, and the like, are offered, in con- 
nection with minor courses in literature, history, civics, 
etc., and the elective system prevails to a large degree. 
As a rule, only highly trained experts are placed in 
charge of departments, and the institutions are fully 
equipped with laboratories, libraries, lecture-rooms, 
farms, etc. Graduation leading to degrees is generally 
safeguarded by stringent examinations conducted by 
accredited officials. 

In addition to these accredited state universities 
there are numerous medical colleges and law schools 
under the partial control and support of the State, and 
the same is true of many institutions for defectives. 
The denominational colleges and theological seminaries 
of the United States are not under the immediate con- 
trol of the States, and receive no financial support, 
although there are valuable concessions. In the older 
commonwealths there are great endowed universities, 
some of them offering courses that would require a life- 
time to cover, and which may well be considered the 
peers of the great universities of Europe. 

Estimate. — The spirit of democracy which animates 
the whole American system lifts it immeasurably above 
the autocracy of the German system, and that without 
injury to the ideal of co-ordination and efhciency, if 
not actually to the advantage of both. In this country 



418 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

secularization has not humiliated the church as it has 
in France, while, on the other hand, the church has not 
delayed the coming of state-supported public schools 
so long as in England. We look with justifiable pride 
upon a system that does not fail in reverence to God 
while it accords the fullest measure of freedom to the 
individual without injury to the claims of the social 
whole. 

REFERENCES 

1. West's "History of the American People." 

2. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

3. Boone's "Education in the United States." 

4. Graves' "History of Education in Modern Times." 

5. Barnard's " American Journal of Education." 

6. Butler's "Education in the United States." 

7. Draper's "American Education." 

8. Mrs. Mary T. Mann's "Horace Mann." 

9. Winship's "Horace Mann." 

10. Dexter's "History of Education in the United States." 

11. Mann's "Annual Reports." 

12. Annual Reports of the United States Commissioner of Ed- 
ucation. 

QUESTIONS 

1. State reasons for the stages in the history of education in 
the United States. 

2. With what three types of schools did the colonial history 
of education begin, and why? 

3. Upon what educational facilities did the Southern planter 
rely? Account for any additional facilities. Explain the atti- 
tude of Sir William Berkeley. 

4. Describe pretty fully how William and Mary College came 
into existence. Account for the course of study, and explain 
the admirable service of this institution. 

5. What was the origin of parish schools in the middle col- 
onies? Examine the control, maintenance, and curriculum of 
these parish schools in colonial New York. What became of 
them after 1674? 

6. Prove that public rather than parish schools were the ideal 



THE UNITED STATES 419 

of William Penn. What, nevertheless, became the policy of the 
settlers of Pennsylvania, and how was it put into operation by 
the various denominations? Make a special study of Christo- 
pher Dock's schools. 

7. What kind of schools was substituted for parish schools 
in western and northern Pennsylvania? 

8. Explain the case of New Jersey and Delaware. 

9. Account for the early establishment of "town" schools 
in Massachusetts and New England. 

10. Explain how Harvard College came into existence. Jus- 
tify the entrance requirements. 

11. Examine three reasons for the decline of the town schools 
in New England after 1649, 1660, and i6go. Account especially 
for the "moving" schools and the later "district" schools. 

12. Why was the cause of education among the first to suffer 
during the Revolutionary War? 

13. What were the hopes and prayers of the founders of our 
republic in matters of education, and what obstacles balked 
these hopes? 

14. Explain the details of the education bill which Jefferson 
fathered, and its fate. Why did the creation of literary (school) 
funds for the education of the poor delay the establishment of 
common schools? 

15. Account for the passage of permissive laws. Were they 
not really contributions to the cause of education? 

16. Distinguish the exclusive grammar-schools from the more 
progressive academies which sprang up in the South. 

17. How did secondary schools come into existence in New 
York? How did the Revolution contribute to the establish- 
ment of common schools in New York State? 

18. What was unfortunate in the otherwise excellent bill of 
1812? 

19. Account for the origin of the "Free School Society of New 
York City." Describe the phenomenal prosperity of the move- 
ment, and explain the final surrender of this society to the city 
Board of Education. 

20. Account for the "gratis" clause in the new constitution 
of Pennsylvania (1790), and show how the fulfilment of this law 
retarded the coming of "free schools." 

21. Explain the important permissive laws of 1818 and 1824. 



420 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

2 2. What was the free school bill of 1834 in Pennsylvania? 
In which sections of the State was it opposed? Explain in full 
the great part which Thaddeus Stevens played in connection 
with this bill. See Wickersham's account of him. 

23. Explain how the district schools of New England grad- 
ually acquired legal sanction, and set forth the details. 

24. Account for the gradual substitution of private secondary 
schools for the original New England grammar-schools. 

25. Explain the highly creditable service which John G. Carter 
rendered the cause of education in Massachusetts. 

26. Compare Rhode Island with other New England States. 

27. Outline the course of events to which the estabUshment of 
schools in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan gave rise. 
What were the educational provisions of the celebrated "Ordi- 
nance of 1787," and why were they so important? 

28. What were the main features of the great educational 
awakening after 1837? What parts did Carter, Mann, and 
Barnard play in this "great awakening"? 

29. How did Horace Mann manage to secure an education, 
and why did he rather than Carter become the secretary of the 
Board of Education in 1837? 

30. In what condition were the schools of Massachusetts in 
1837, and by what methods did Mann seek to reform them? 

31. Explain why Mann believed in normal schools, and how 
he succeeded in his efforts to establish several. 

32. How did Mann become involved in two bitter contro- 
versies, and what were the results? 

33. Explain the services which Mann rendered the cause of 
education through his A nnual Reports. 

34. Sum up the achievements of Horace Mann, and follow 
him to the close of his life. 

35. What can you find in the making of Henry Barnard that 
would prophesy a great career? 

36. Compare the career of Barnard as secretary of the Con- 
necticut Board of Education with that of Horace Mann. 

37. Explain his great success in Rhode Island, and his recall 
to Connecticut, together with his splendid services. 

38. How did Barnard become the first United States com- 
missioner of education, and what impulse did he give this 
bureau ? 



THE UNITED STATES 421 

39. What services did Barnard render the cause of education 
as a writer? 

40. What problems were finally solved in the New England 
States by the creation and distribution of state school funds ? 

41. How was centralization in the organization and control 
of schools delayed in New York, and how was it gradually com- 
pleted ? 

42. How did the academies of the State of New York lose 
their hold, and elementary education become absolutely free? 

43. What hindered the Pennsylvania school law of 1834 from 
going into immediate effect, and how was the matter finally 
settled? 

44. What services did Thomas H. Burrowes render the cause 
of education? How is public education in Pennsylvania now 
supervised? Consult references on the history of Pennsylvania 
normal schools, and examine the Code of 191 1. 

45. How have New Jersey and Delaware solved some of the 
hard problems of education? 

46. What were the problems that Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois 
had to solve, and how were these problems solved? Why did 
Michigan escape many of these troubles? 

47. How did the Western States upon admission to the Union 
solve the problems of state schools, their maintenance, and regu- 
lations? 

48. How did the Southern States respond to the great awaken- 
ing before the Civil War and afterward? 

49. What were the difficulties of the "reconstruction" period? 
What was the Peabody Fund? Describe the educational as- 
pects of the "New South." 

50. How have all sections of the Union responded to the 
problems of state-supported and state-controlled school systems ? 

51. Why is it correct to say that the school systems of the 
United States constitute a national system? 

52. How may the education of the American child begin? 
Who attends the elementary schools? What uniformity in the 
curriculum is wide-spread? What are some of the fortunate 
conditions under which our children complete the elementary 
course? Consult references regarding our continuation schools. 

53. Name some of the many safeguards thrown about the 
profession of teaching in the United States. 



422 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

54. Explain the state relations, curriculum, teaching forces, 
and physical equipment of our secondary schools. 

55. Explain the state relations, curriculum, teaching forces, 
and physical equipment of our state universities and other 
higher educational institutions. Consult references. 

56. Compare our national system with that of Germany, 
France, and England. 



CHAPTER XIX 
TENDENCIES 

Educational reforms, like other solutions of problems 
in the course of history, have generally given rise to 
new problems. Just as in the history of the United 
States the one "continued problem" has been conflict 
between the claims of the States as individuals and the 
claims of the federated whole, so in the history of edu- 
cation the one continued problem has been, and proba- 
bly will continue to be, such an adjustment of the indi- 
vidual and the social whole to each other as shall be 
progressively best for both, in harmony with the un- 
folding purposes of God. We have thus far studied a 
succession of reform movements, and found that in 
most of them adjustment of claims was incomplete, and 
that where the adjustment was ideal it either hardened 
into lifeless forms which called for new reforms, or else 
succumbed to the conflict with the opposite. And yet 
we think that in the long run and on the whole the 
sum total of these reforms has been a constant gain, 
and that in the reform movements of the present age 
we are nearing goals set for us in the divine ideal. 
It is only fitting and proper that the closing chapter of 
this volume should be devoted to a brief survey and 
estimate of the tendencies and movements that promise 
a more glorious future. 

The Scientific Tendency. — We are no longer satis- 
fied with mere traditions. The intellectual world is 
convinced that nature will give up her secrets to any 

423 



424 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

one who is willing to pay the price of intelligent and 
patient research. The laboratory method has become 
the familiar and powerful instrument of research, not 
only in the study of physical nature but also in the 
study of man himself — his origin, being, and destiny. 
As a result the older sciences have become greatly en- 
riched in content, and new sciences have come into 
being, and both have become integral parts of the 
school curriculum. 

Startling scientific discoveries have become practical 
applications, just as Locke had foreseen. Many 
thoughtful men, among them the scientists themselves, 
and of course those who believe that education should 
amount to preparation for living in an ever-changing 
and progressive environment, hold that the sciences, 
pure and applied, deserve a high place in all the schools 
from the bottom to the top. Thus, for practical as 
well as pedagogical reasons, elementary science in the 
form of "nature-study" has found its way into the 
elementary schools; physics, chemistry, biology, and 
astronomy in the secondary schools and colleges, and 
research departments with powerful laboratory equip- 
ments have become the mark of prestige in the great 
universities. Among those who have spoken with 
authority on these matters we must honor such men 
as Huxley, Agassiz, and Spencer. The last-named 
thinker deserves special treatment in this connection. 

HERBERT SPENCER 

In Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) the scientific gains 
of past centuries became eloquent, and demanded 
recognition. 



TENDENCIES 425 

In the Making. — Herbert Spencer'was born at Derby, 
England. He was educated by his father, a school- 
master at Derby, and by his uncle, the Reverend 
Thomas Spencer, rector of Hinton. The education 
which his father, a non-conforming Wesleyan, gave 
him during his childhood and early youth ''tended de- 
cidedly to quicken his interest in the study of nature, 
and to develop his powers of independent thought and 
of inquiry into the nature of things." At the age of 
seventeen, instead of going to college, he began to 
study engineering, in which occupation he spent some 
years. In the meantime his active mind turned power- 
fully to the most progressive English liberalism. In 
that year when, as a consequence of revolution, France 
for a second time became a republic, and the thrones 
of Europe trembled, namely, 1848, Spencer was resid- 
ing in London, where he had moved, so it would ap- 
pear, in 1843, i^ order to devote himself to literature 
and philosophy. It was in connection with these 
pursuits that he became a contributor to the West- 
minster and Edinburgh Reviews, and presently a writer 
of philosophic books that in number and power of con- 
ception have lately commanded much attention. 

Books. — In 1855 he finished the first edition of his 
"Principles of Psychology." He undertook to prove 
that life consists of "a continuous adjustment of inner 
relations to outer relations," and that the mental capa- 
bilities are the developed result of such adjustments. 
In i860 he published the little book "Education," 
which entitles him to a place in the history of educa- 
tion, and which at the time of its appearance ran 
counter to almost everything in the established system 
of secondary and higher education. The book consists 
of four chapters. 



426 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Ideas on Education. — The first chapter of this brac- 
ing little volume is an essay on the relative value of 
studies, and the others are devoted respectively to 
intellectual, moral, and physical education. 

Relative Value of Studies. — Spencer was opposed to 
the traditional course of study, especially to the great 
preponderance of the classics in secondary and higher 
institutions of learning. He contended that the only 
rational way of determining "what knowledge is of 
most worth" in a curriculum is to discover of what 
real use it is in life. Then he made a complete survey 
of life — complete as he thought — and summed up all 
the various activities under the general heads of self- 
preservation, the bringing up of children, social rela- 
tions, citizenship, morals, and leisure. Suiting the 
means to the ends, he concluded that the school cur- 
riculum should be built up of such studies as physi- 
ology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and 
social science. 

"Thus," as Spencer puts it in his confident way, 
"to the question with which we set out, What knowl- 
edge is of most worth? the uniform reply is — science. 
This is the verdict in all the counts. For direct self- 
preservation or the maintenance of hfe and health, the 
all-important knowledge is — science. For that indirect 
self-preservation which we call gaining a livelihood, the 
knowledge of greatest value is — science. For the due 
discharge of parental functions, the proper guidance is 
to be found only in — science. For that interpretation 
of national life, past and present, without which the 
citizen cannot rightly regulate his conduct, the indis- 
pensable key is — science. Alike for the most perfect 
production and highest enjoyment of art in all its forms, 



TENDENCIES 427 

the needful preparation is still — science. And for pur- 
poses of discipline — intellectual, moral, religious — the 
most efficient study is, once more — science." 

The soul-shrivelling worship of the merely useful be- 
trays itself especially in Spencer's brutal condemnation 
of the soul-life of the race — its finer sympathies and 
sensibilities — its inner visions and its holy aspirations. 
"However fully we may admit," he says, "that ex- 
tensive acquaintance with modern languages is a valu- 
able accomplishment, which through reading, con- 
versation, and travel aids in giving a certain finish, 
it by no means follows that this result is rightly pur- 
chased at the cost of that vitally important knowledge 
sacrificed to it. Supposing it true that classical edu- 
cation conduces to elegance and correctness of style, 
it cannot be said that elegance and correctness of style 
are comparable in importance to familiarity with the 
principles that should guide the rearing of children. 
Grant that the taste may be greatly improved by read- 
ing all the poetry in extinct languages, yet it is not to 
be inferred that such improvement of taste is equivalent 
in value to an acquaintance with the laws of health. 
Accomplishments, the fine arts, belles-lettres, and all 
those things which, as we say, constitute the efiior- 
escence of civilization should be wholly subordinate to 
that knowledge and disciphne in which civilization 
rests. As they occupy the leisure part of life, so they 
should occupy the leisure part of education." 

As a reply to these conclusions of Spencer it will 
probably be sufficient to call the reader's attention to 
the fact that in a well-balanced curriculum the things 
which Spencer compares should not, and really can- 
not, exclude each other, and that what Spencer chooses 



428 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to call the leisure part of life is often the part that 
makes life really worth living. To this reflection we 
ought to add the fact, widely recognized among those 
who stop long enough to think about it, that an edu- 
cation consisting almost wholly of scientific pursuits, 
as in Spencer's own case, and as Darwin sadly recog- 
nized in himself, cannot satisfy the deepest hungers and 
thirsts of the soul. 

Intellectual Education. — In his second chapter Spen- 
cer, as we might expect from his interest in psychology, 
contends for scientific pedagogy. In the course of the 
chapter he devotes himself with keen insight to prin- 
ciples, most of which indeed have become familiar to 
us through Comenius, Pestalozzi, and other illustrious 
educational reformers. 

He takes up the following principles in order: (i) In 
teaching we should proceed from the simple to the 
complex, (2) from the concrete to the abstract. (3) The 
genesis of knowledge must follow the same course as 
the genesis of knowledge in the race. (4) Adequate 
particulars should pave the way for generalization, or 
theory should follow practice. (5) Increase of mental 
power comes only through what the pupil can be in- 
duced to do for himself, or self-activity is the basis of 
education. (6) Pleasurable excitement on the part of 
the student must be the criterion of any educational 
method. We do violence to nature when we try to 
substitute force for the pupil's own initiative. 

The third and the last of these principles call for 
comment. 

In the contention that the genesis of knowledge in 
the individual must follow the same course as the 
genesis of knowledge in the race, Spencer, like Ziller 



TENDENCIES 429 

and Rein, presses Herbart's principle of correlation to 
extremes. All these disciples of Herbart assume that 
the biological theory of recapitulation holds in mental 
as well as in physical development. This conclusion 
breaks down at many points under the hammer of 
overwhelming proof. It is the glory of twentieth- 
century educational practice to save the individual 
from the despotic recapitulation which this theory con- 
siders inevitable, and the success with which the means 
to this end have been employed, namely, the substi- 
tution of superior environment in the redemption of 
the individual, has proved far greater than that of 
Ziller and Rein in their effort to build up a recapitu- 
lating curriculum. 

Spencer devotes the major part of his second chap- 
ter to proofs confirming Herbart's celebrated doctrine 
of pleasurable excitement through apperceptive in- 
struction and the conclusion that the self-activity to 
which such pleasurable excitement provokes the mind 
is the surest way to increase of mental power. In- 
asmuch as apperceptive instruction makes that selec- 
tion of materials through which the individual may be 
saved from despotic recapitulation of race-develop- 
ment possible, Spencer apparently breaks the force of 
his argument in favor of the recapitulation theory by 
those in favor of apperceptive correlation. 

Moral Education. — Relying as wholly on his induc- 
tive method of reaching conclusions in the moral world 
as he does in the world of pure intellect, Spencer, as 
we might expect from his less emotional temperament, 
rejects the extreme individualism of Rousseau's theory 
of morals. Nevertheless, ignoring the claims of Chris- 
tian ethics, and relying solely on his evolutionistic psy- 



430 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

chology, he adopted Rousseau's theory of natural con- 
sequences in moral discipline, and defends it with a 
captivating array of illustrative proofs that seem irre- 
sistible until the reader matches his own experience and 
his own observations against Spencer's illustrations, 
and then discovers that nature is often too severe and 
still more often too slow in the consequences with which 
she punishes infractions of her laws. While, for exam- 
ple, it is quite true, as Spencer points out, that the 
child who "neglects to get ready in time for a walk," 
and is therefore left at home, learns the necessary moral 
lesson effectively without the use of artificial force, 
and is compelled to admit the justice of the penalty, 
thus remaining on terms of good-will toward those 
who inflict the corrective, it is equally and startlingly 
true that if an innocent child plays with fire it may be 
injured for life, or even burned to death, in which case 
the punishment, if it could be prevented, must be con- 
sidered simply brutal, and without justification. In 
other cases, as in the formation of bad habits, such as 
those of appropriating property that does not belong 
to the child, or smoking cigarettes, or impure thoughts, 
the first consequences do not serve as a sufficient warn- 
ing against fearful final effects. 

Notwithstanding the serious weakness of this chap- 
ter, we owe Spencer our thanks for opposing the harsh 
methods of discipline so common in his days, and in 
other days, and for his contention that the only mode 
of discipline which produces self-governing men and 
women is reasonable discipline, which in most cases 
really is a natural discipline. "Bear constantly in 
mind," says Spencer, "the truth that the aim of your 
discipline should be to produce a self-governing being, 



TENDENCIES 431 

not to produce a being to be governed by others. 
Were your children fated to pass their lives as slaves, 
you could not too much accustom them to slavery 
during their childhood; but as they are by and by to 
be freemen, with no one to control their daily conduct, 
you cannot too much accustom them to self-control 
while they are still under your eye." 

Physical Education. — In the last chapter of his book 
Spencer calls the attention of parents and teachers to 
the great importance of caring for the body. Al- 
though his arguments are still uncompromisingly 
utilitarian, he often rises to the real moral heights of 
his own life. Thus, for example, he believes with 
Huxley that a man ought to be "a good animal," evi- 
dently for utilitarian reasons, but in the same breath 
urges that "health is a duty." In the same vein he 
finds fault with the fathers of England for being more 
concerned about the welfare of their horses and cattle 
than about the welfare of their children. "Men's 
habitual words and acts," says Spencer, "imply the 
idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as 
they please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to 
nature's dictates they regard simply as grievances, not 
as the effects of a conduct more or less flagitious. 
Though the evil consequences on their dependents 
and on future generations are often as great as those 
caused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in 
any degree criminal. It is true that in the case of 
drunkenness, the viciousness of a purely bodily trans- 
gression is recognized, but none appears to infer that, 
if this bodily transgression is vicious, so, too, is every 
bodily transgression. The fact is that all breaches of 
the laws of health are physical sins." 



432 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Applying these conclusions to the condition of the 
English schools as he found them, Spencer says: "If, 
as all who investigate the matter must admit, physical 
degeneracy is a consequence of excessive study, how- 
grave is the condemnation to be passed upon this 
cramming system ! It is a terrible mistake, from what- 
ever point of view regarded." And then he goes on 
to prove that even if the overcrowded courses of study 
which he had in mind were good pedagogy — which he 
denies — such courses, by destroying the physical vigor 
needed in life, defeat the very ends of education. 

Estimate. — That Spencer's conclusions on the great 
questions of curriculum, intellectual development, and 
moral discipline are based upon a philosophy which, 
to say the least, it would be rash to accept absolutely, 
must be evident to most of us, and yet we are compelled 
to admit that his book belongs to that brief list of im- 
mortal books which have helped to make the teacher's 
world and the pupil's world a better one. It stands 
for conclusions based upon exact and minute inquiry 
into facts, and patient induction that must ever be the 
scientific mood in which we approach and under which 
we shall finally succeed in solving our great problems 
of life and mind. 

The Vocational Movement.— Invention, as Bacon 
foresaw, has followed close upon the heels of science. 
Thus have come the factory system and other indus- 
trial revolutions, blotting out almost completely the 
old-time stimulating educational relation between 
vocational masters and their apprentices. The new 
relation, namely, that of employer and employee, is 
much more mobile, so that even if the industrial plant 
could be utilized as a means in the training of expert 



TENDENCIES 433 

operatives, the employer could not be sure that he 
would reap any benefits. Granted that through the 
sharing of incomes the relation of employer to employee 
could become mutually profitable, the modern indus- 
trial plant — and this is surely serious — must generally 
confine the operatives to a single process, which rather 
arrests than promotes mental development. What is 
still more serious — and economy makes it imperative — 
is the well-known fact that only a few of the many 
employments in a great industrial plant require much 
mental effort at all. 

If, therefore, the vast army of boys and girls that 
annually finds its way into the industrial world is to 
be saved from the fate of arrested development — not 
to speak of starvation wages — and the social whole 
into which these young people merge socially is to be 
saved from mental, political, and spiritual degeneracy, 
the school must assume the function of vocational 
guidance and vocational training. This has become 
the irresistible and powerful conviction not only of 
educational reformers — modern Pestalozzis — -but also 
of states and nations. The great struggle for liveli- 
hood in overcrowded centres of population, and the 
still greater struggle for commercial supremacy — often 
with ulterior motives of ulterior political ambition in 
the background, as in the case of modern Germany — 
have made most states and nations accept as final the 
function of establishing schools in which boys and girls 
can become expert "bread-winners" and expert work- 
ers in all those industries where efficiency is important 
to the welfare of the social whole or the political mas- 
ters. All the principal states of Europe have main- 
tained such training as integral parts of their educa- 



434 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tional systems for the last half-century, and the United 
States has lately taken hold of the matter with much 
enthusiasm. 

Europe. — In Germany vocational education is pro- 
vided in continuation schools, supplementing ele- 
mentary, secondary, and higher schools of the national 
system. In this way provisions have been made not 
only for the rank and file of workmen in the different 
trades but also for the development of foremen and 
superintendents. Germany now also trains girls for 
quite a variety of vocations. In north Germany the 
schools generally confine themselves to theory, leaving 
the practical side to the care of employers, while in the 
south German states the two sides are combined and 
adapted as much as possible to local industries. 

In France elementary schools articulate into con- 
tinuation schools to which the pupils may be admitted 
at the age of thirteen, and continue there for three 
years. The course for boys varies with local needs, 
but always includes woodwork. The course for girls 
includes dressmaking, millinery, artificial flowers, and 
other useful tasks. 

England began to make grants for evening industrial 
schools and classes as early as 185 1, and twenty years 
later raised these tentative provisions into regular 
continuation schools open both day and evening, and 
offering theory as well as practice. In addition to 
these continuation schools England has lately estab- 
lished higher elementary schools offering four-year 
courses in theory and practice, but adapted to local 
needs. 

United States. — In the United States some of the 
larger cities, notably New York, Philadelphia, Cin- 



TENDENCIES 435 

cinnati, and Richmond, began to offer industrial train- 
ing through philanthropy the latter half of the nine- 
teenth century, but only in evening continuation 
schools. It was not until later that the public schools 
followed the example, and organized evening classes in 
mathematics, drawing, science, and technical subjects. 
After some years day instruction began, and since 1906 
several hundred day trade-schools, some for younger 
boys and some for youths between sixteen and twenty- 
one, have been organized in the larger cities, and mostly 
through public support. Endowed secondary schools 
and technical high schools in a number of cities also 
provide higher training to equip our industries with 
leaders. ''Part-time" vocational training has recently 
been attempted in connection with high school and 
college courses. In the great reconstruction following 
the recent war, Europe will need a veritable army of 
young men trained for expert work and leadership in 
many vocations, and, deprived of the opportunity to 
train these industrials, she will call upon America for 
help, and America cannot afford to be unprepared. 
This special stimulus, added to the general industrial 
awakening of the country, should rouse much en- 
thusiasm. 

Commerce. — The great industrial awakening of the 
last half-century has forced commerce into such vast 
proportions and technical complexities that expert 
training has become imperative. Until quite recently, 
however, it was assumed that such training was not 
the function of the school. The schoolmen looked 
upon such schooling as sordid, and the business world 
waited to be convinced of its efficiency. The convic- 
tion that the school owes something to commerce and 



436 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

that it can really serve commerce is rapidly breaking 
down all prejudice and replacing it with hope and con- 
fidence. 

Germany, hoping to establish a world-empire in 
commerce, began soon after the Franco-Prussian War 
to train commercial experts through private continua- 
tion schools, in which a course of three years in com- 
mercial studies and modern languages was offered. 
To these facilities the government later added both 
public secondary and university courses. Although 
England and France were both rather tardy in the 
matter, both private and pubhc facilities of a high 
order have been organized. 

In the United States the commercial movement be- 
came a school movement shortly before the Civil War. 
The bookkeeping classes with which the movement 
began through private enterprise soon gave rise to 
so-called "business colleges." These, alas! were too 
frequently pecuniary adventures and makeshifts rather 
than effective agencies in the training of candidates for 
such a complex of mental and moral processes as modern 
business. The normal schools, largely to save the boy 
and girl for themselves, and thus for an education of 
better proportions, have until quite recently offered 
similar courses. Now that state supervision, inspired 
by the great commercial awakening, has incorporated 
optional business courses into our public high schools, 
the normal schools offer less ambitious business courses. 
One of the first attempts in this country to solve the 
problem of higher commercial education was the estab- 
lishment of the Wharton School of Finance and Com- 
merce at the University of Pennsylvania. Since then 
many universities have established colleges of com- 



TENDENCIES 437 

merce, some of them offering superior scientific and 
technical courses in finance and banking, international 
law and comity, modern languages and other allied 
subjects. 

Agriculture. — The pastoral stage of civilization was 
followed by the agricultural, and the latter must in 
the last analysis be looked upon as the fundamental 
industry. So prolific, however, is nature, that as long 
as it was possible to supplement the production of 
food in any country by imports the government made 
no efforts to reform traditional and wasteful methods 
of agriculture. When Europe reached the acute stage, 
agricultural bureaus for research purposes were estab- 
lished by the countries affected, and presently agricul- 
ture became a part of the school curriculum. France, 
for example, has introduced the subject into elementary 
education and the normal schools, while Germany, in 
addition to elementary instruction, provides a secon- 
dary course in the upper grades of the Realschulen. 

It dawned early upon statesmen of vision that 
among the greatest of our natural resources in America 
are vast agricultural regions, and that it is best to keep 
pace in food supply with the growth of cities as indus- 
trial and commercial centres. Therefore the national 
government as early as 1862, when we were still in the 
midst of the Civil War, began to stimulate agricultural 
instruction by granting land to colleges. Presently 
other revenues were added, and recently Congress has 
begun to furnish appropriations for agricultural instruc- 
tion and college extension work. The great exodus of 
the country folk to the city within the last generation, 
resulting from the vast extension of the industrial rev- 
olution, has produced an ominous congestion of popu- 



438 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

lation in the great cities, and for this reason and also 
because agricultural instruction has been discovered to 
have great educational value, the various States have 
begun in earnest to make agriculture an integral part of 
the regular school curriculum, thus turning thousands 
of boys and girls "back to the farm." The great need 
is trained teachers, able to produce the desired result. 
The recent world war has given an additional im- 
pulse to agriculture in the schools, which is likely to 
bear further fruit. Moreover, forestry is likely to 
share with agriculture in the benefits of this im- 
pulse. 

Religion and Morality. — If, as psychology goes to 
show, religion, that is, relation to a personal God, is the 
final guarantee of morality, we might conclude off- 
hand that the cause of morals would suffer irreparably 
by the surrender of the church to the state in the con- 
trol of education. Thus far, to say the least, the re- 
sults are rather startling. This is true first of all in 
France, from whose state-controlled schools not only 
religious instruction but all reference to the supernat- 
ural has been barred. But when we turn to Ger- 
many, where, under rigid state control of education, 
moral instruction is designedly and closely correlated 
with religious instruction, apparently satisfactory to 
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, because it is imparted 
by their accredited representatives, morality as well 
as religion has become a slave to the despotism of dynas- 
tic militarism. In England, on the other hand, where 
by age-old deference to the church moral instruction 
is designedly denominational in the "voluntary schools" 
and undenominational in the "board schools," much 
bitterness has resulted from competition between the 



TENDENCIES 439 

two kinds of schools, and the situation is still a serious 
problem. 

In the United States the secularization of the schools 
has left no place for denominational instruction in the 
curriculum, and yet in most States the Bible is not only 
read but revered as the "book of books" and as the 
final court of morals. If, on the one hand, denomina- 
tional instruction is distinctly prohibited, any ab- 
sence of reverence for God and sacred institutions, on 
the other hand, is generally considered fatal to the moral 
influence for which we look in the teacher. 

The fact must be patent to any dispassionate ob- 
server that, in spite of serious setbacks, the cause of 
reHgious morality has lately been gaining until it 
promises to become, as we might have expected from 
its primal function in life, the dominant motive in 
modern education. This moral revival manifests it- 
self very conspicuously in the long-range relations of 
interdependence resulting from modern industries, 
modern commerce, modern government, and the mod- 
ern press, in all of which honesty in its various aspects 
is indispensable to the very continuance of relations. 
A growing sense of human kinship and responsibility is 
another conspicuous promise that instruction in respon- 
sible stewardship will be increasingly emphasized in 
education. The conviction that what America needs 
most is an educational system which is moral from 
the base to the summit is wide-spread and insistent. 
This appears from the profound attention which the 
subject receives not only in state conventions of edu- 
cators but especially also from the fact that the matter 
has been carried up into the council of the "National 
Education Association." The two phases of the ten- 



440 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

dency may be advantageously viewed under the idea 
of honesty and stewardship. 

Honesty. — The conviction that morah'ty should be 
the crowning effect of any system of modern education 
arises especially, as before noticed, from the new long- 
distance relations between man and man. Production 
for distant markets, for example, tempts men at both 
ends of the line to various species of dishonesty. 

The large proportions which representative govern- 
ment in this country has assumed tend to remove the 
individual representative from the immediate scrutiny 
of the people and thus to moral laxity of office. 

The new social and moral conditions to which young 
men and women coming to big industrial and com- 
mercial centres in ever greater numbers have to become 
used are full of moral perils, especially because the 
stabilizing moral sanctions of home and boyhood 
church cannot usually be duplicated. It is in order 
that under such new and. trying conditions young people 
may give a satisfactory account of themselves to the 
state as to the high tribunal of conscience that Ameri- 
can schools must be expected to ally themselves with 
the church and the home in laying stress on moral 
education. 

Stewardship. — That the sense of stewardship which 
Christ brought into the world is making itself felt, es- 
pecially in America and American education, and that 
its radius is lengthening into a world-empire, is very 
evident. 

Denominational Colleges. — Much as we pride our- 
selves upon state colleges, and justly so, we feel that 
we must look to our denominational colleges to supply 
the higher education of the Christian ministry — an in- 
dispensable agency in moral education. It is generally 



TENDENCIES 441 

recognized that although these colleges have in some 
instances been multiplied beyond the possibility of 
highest efficiency, they perform a function which the 
state colleges and other higher institutions could not 
be expected to perform, namely, the keeping alive of 
those great Bible truths which serve as most powerful 
moral stimuli. 

Other Colleges. — That the Bible is looked upon as 
the indispensable book in the higher moral education 
which the present age demands finds confirmation in 
the fact that many colleges have recently introduced 
it into the course as a regular study. Such instruction, 
properly imparted, is of great importance to young 
men in their adolescence. 

Christian Associations. — Young Men's and Young 
Women's Christian Associations are playing an im- 
portant part in building up the religious ideals of our 
young people, and the Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union has done a good work in bringing about the 
formulation of state regulations on questions of tem- 
perance which profoundly influence not only higher 
education but also our common schools. 

Sunday-Schools. — While the specific purpose of the 
present-day Sunday-school is religious, it is a powerful 
and highly esteemed moral agency. Whether England 
or America is really the historical cradle of the Sunday- 
school may remain in dispute, but England and America 
both look upon this integral part of church work as a 
most essential agency in the development of public 
morals. The growth in number of these educational 
facilities is phenomenal. 

Our Unfortunates. — The sense of Christian steward- 
ship in modern education is conspicuous in the pro- 
visions made for the education of defectives. The 



442 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

feeling prevails that not only the church but also the 
state owes all unfortunates an education that functions 
in self-help, self-respect, and such happiness as may be 
possible under the circumstances. The blessed task 
of providing facilities for an astonishingly large num- 
ber of mental defectives and sense defectives and other 
unfortunates can be effectively performed only by co- 
operation between the church, the state, and men of 
wealth. The latter, by their munificence, especially 
in great crises, have frequently vindicated themselves 
from the charge of heartlessness. The great progress 
which the present age is making in the education of 
defectives and other unfortunates is due to a large 
extent to gifted individuals who have devoted their 
lives to the discovery of methods. 

The greatest credit for the discovery of methods in 
the education of mental defectives probably belongs 
to Edward Seguin, who came from France to the 
United States in 1850 and developed his methods here. 
He appealed to the mind through the senses, using 
such means as pictures, photographs, wax, clay, com- 
passes, and pencils. These "physiological" methods 
of Seguin have sometimes been supplemented by books 
as means, but without much success. France, Eng- 
land, and Germany provide for the training of mental 
defectives along these lines, but the United States, 
thanks to the fine start given to us by Seguin, provides 
most fully for such education. About twenty thou- 
sand, or one-tenth of the whole number of such defec- 
tives in this country are receiving special training. 
Special clinics and investigations looking toward the 
discovery of helpful methods are being conducted by 
Doctor Witmer of the University of Pennsylvania, and 



TENDENCIES 443 

by Doctor Goddard of the Training-School at Vine- 
land, N. J. Considerable progress has been made 
lately in the organization of tests, like the Binet-Simon 
tests for feeble-mindedness. 

Sense Defectives. — Thousands of boys and girls men- 
tally sound, but handicapped in the struggle to make 
a living, or a conscious burden upon others, and corre- 
spondingly unhappy, have become the proteges of the 
larger stewardship so conspicuous in the educational 
idealism of the present age. 

To Abbe de I'Epee of Paris belongs the credit of in- 
venting the first of the two chief methods of educating 
the deaf, namely, the manual or silent method. His 
school was adopted by the French nation in 1791, and 
has served useful purposes in other lands. The lip- 
movement or oral method, although known earHer than 
the silent method, was not employed much before the 
middle of the nineteenth century, but is now the fa- 
vored method of most countries. The two methods 
are sometimes combined. Practically every State in 
our country has one or more schools for the deaf, and 
in Gallaudet College, at Washington, provisions have 
been made for higher education. 

The credit of inventing the method of teaching the 
blind by means of ''raised letters" belongs to another 
Parisian, Abbe Haiiy. Through some fault in the 
management, his schools, founded late in the eighteenth 
century, were failures, but early in the nineteenth cen- 
tury his method had been adopted by all the leading 
countries of Europe, and by the middle of the century 
similar institutions were founded in the United States. 

The skill to which both the deaf and the blind may 
attain in handicrafts is simply marvellous. The most 



444 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

conspicuous examples of high mental attainments are 
the well-known cases of Laura Bridgman and Helen 
Keller. 

In America the provisions made for the education of 
millions of negroes whom the Civil War emancipated 
but stranded morally and industrially must be ascribed 
not only to. the desire to escape a burden, but also to 
the sense of larger brotherhood and stewardship. Here 
men of wealth, like John F. Slater, vied with the Freed- 
man's Bureau and other organizations of church and 
state in their efforts to shoulder great moral responsi- 
bilities. The New South owes a great debt to these 
agencies. They helped to make such experiments as 
that of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee possible. 
In this connection, too, we cannot afford to ignore the 
splendid services of Robert C. Ogden, after whom a 
movement in Southern education has been named. 

The same spirit of philanthropic sense of respon- 
sibility has prompted institutional efforts to provide 
schools for the dispossessed Indians of the great West. 
One of the most successful Indian schools was the great 
institution at Carlisle, Pa. 

Among other moral movements in modern education 
are the reform schools where boys and girls otherwise 
lost to themselves and the social whole are educated. 
Probably the most conspicuous experiment in the 
philanthropic reclamation of prospective criminals is 
the George Junior Republic of New York State, founded 
by Captain George for the education of city street 
boys, and widely copied in other States. 

Educational Experiments.— The tendency to fossil- 
ize in educational practice is more than matched in 
the present age by the tendency to subject every ap- 



TENDENCIES 445 

parent conquest to new and more searching tests. This 
is to our credit, for it is an admission that we have not 
yet attained perfection. We can review only the most 
conspicuous of these experiments. 

The Parker Experiments. — Francis W. Parker (183 1- 
1902) began his own education in a New Hampshire 
district school, and after a course of several years in 
the University of Berlin, he became the superintendent 
of the schools of Quincy, Mass. (1875-1880). The 
board gave him a free hand, and he fairly revolu- 
tionized both the content of the curriculum and the 
methods of instruction, harmonizing both with the 
FroebelHan principles of motor-expression and social 
participation, and giving even speech and the language 
arts these aspects. Much of the work was outdoor 
and informal, and thus Pestalozzian. This ''Quincy 
movement" assumed a longer and longer radius in his 
later reforms as principal of the Cook County and 
Chicago normal schools (i 883-1 899), whence he sent 
forth enthusiastic disciples. In a way his experiments 
made those of Dewey possible. Colonel Parker's in- 
fluence also lives through his books. 

The Dewey Experiments. — Doctor John Dewey made 
an educational experiment at Chicago University be- 
tween 1896 and 1903 that must be looked upon as one 
of the notable contributions to the theory of education. 
Dewey noted that human relations are largely deter- 
mined by the industries in which people engage, and, 
accepting the adjustment of the individual and the 
social whole to each other as his educational ideal, he 
held that the curriculum of the school should consist 
very largely of those industries which produce ideal re- 
lations. Accordingly, in the elementary school which 



446 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

he established, "weaving, sewing, cooking, and shop- 
work served as the introduction to other industrial 
activities, all which received a historical study." The 
social participation, together with motor-expression, 
on which Froebel insisted in the kindergarten are both 
present in Dewey's larger selection of occupational 
activities, and the selective freedom of the pupil is 
more ideally safeguarded. In this way significant, and 
therefore justifiable, content was given to such studies 
as science, history, and art, while instruction in such 
formal studies as reading, writing, and arithmetic 
found most effective motives in the "realism" of the 
tasks. Moreover, the social participation which occu- 
pations promote produce individual experiences about 
which it is interesting to talk and which are interest- 
ing to an audience, thus furnishing the best psychologi- 
cal motive for oral expression. 

The "Annual Report of the Rockefeller Foundation" 
in 1916, outlining a curriculum based upon the principle 
that "the accessible world of the child should be used 
as his educational laboratory," may be regarded as an 
extreme interpretation of Dewey's occupational cur- 
riculum. 

In his later interpretations of the teaching process, 
as we should expect from the observations which he 
was able to make of the child-mind at work, he calls 
attention to those processes by which the mind comes 
into relation with the objective world, and points out 
how largely our methods of teaching should produce 
and promote these processes. He calls the new way of 
approach the "problem method," and shows that, 
notwithstanding the common opinion handed down 
from Aristotle's time, this problem method of thinking 



TENDENCIES 447 

(hunting, guessing) largely precedes and often super- 
sedes both induction and deduction in their formal 
aspect. 

Among the illuminating books which Doctor Dewey 
has contributed to the teaching profession are "School 
and Society/' ''How We Think," "Interest and Effort 
in Education," and "The Schools of To-Morrow." 
That the biological conception embodied in Doctor 
William James' "Talks to Teachers" and Doctor 
Hall's "Adolescence," together with the wholesome 
corrective studies of Doctor Judd, are in amazing har- 
mony with Deweyism was only to be expected. 

The Gary System. — ^As a rule, all the pupils of the or- 
dinary city school do the same thing at the same time. 
In the morning they meet in the auditorium for general 
exercises, after which, except for brief periods of in- 
termission, the day is spent in classrooms. This ar- 
rangement leaves either the auditorium or the class- 
rooms unoccupied, or largely so, at alternate times. 
At Gary, Indiana, Superintendent William Wirt has 
worked out a "work-study-play" system of schools 
which might be characterized as an expansion of 
Deweyism in education and as a realization of the 
Rockefeller ideal. Here all school activities are car- 
ried on simultaneously in shops, laboratories, gym- 
nasiums, swimming-pools, gardens, libraries, class- 
rooms, and auditoriums. In other words, while some 
classes are studying or reciting in classrooms, others 
are working in shops and laboratories, still others are 
playing, reading, or busy in auditoriums. The plan 
gathers up and employs the whole child, and while it 
makes the school-day longer, it utilizes much time and 
space usually wasted, and enlarges the curriculum into 



448 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

a miniature world. Then, too, by housing double the 
number of pupils in the same space, it solves the "half- 
time" problem which exists in many large cities, and 
it probably saves some expense. Whether the Gary 
system can accommodate itself to cities which cannot 
readily place their industrial and economic means at 
the disposal of the school as necessary co-ordinates, or 
where those co-ordinates would hardly tend to enrich 
the curriculum, remains to be tried out. Experiments 
are in progress, and the likelihood is that if the system 
cannot be adopted as a whole it will stimulate salutary 
reconstructions. 

The Montessori Method. — The educational experi- 
ments which Doctor Maria Montessori (1870- ) has 
been making since 1907 at Rome have attracted un- 
usual attention. There, in connection with her work 
in the University of Rome, she became interested in 
the educational possibilities of defective children, and, 
adapting materials used by Seguin, she devised "di- 
dactic apparatus" for the training of the senses. Her 
success with defectives brought her the opportunity of 
organizing infant schools for normal children in the 
poorest parts of Rome. Rooms opening out into a 
court were furnished according to her directions and 
called "The Children's Houses." The methods used 
in her experiments have been adopted by many schools 
in Italy and Switzerland and in other countries. 

With Rousseau and Froebel, Madame Montessori 
assumes that "nature is right," and that accordingly 
it is the teacher's function to observe, test, and direct 
rather than control children in the educative process. 
In the administration of this generally accepted prin- 
ciple, however, she provides less for "group problems," 



TENDENCIES 449 

or social participation, on the part of the little people, 
and isolates herself far more from this participation 
than Pestalozzi and Froebel. 

Although in her selection and organization of di- 
dactic materials, such as silk bobbins, blocks, and cylin- 
ders, to wake the mind through the senses, she is evi- 
dently seeking to escape the narrow formalism of the 
Froebel "gifts," she is less fortunate than Dewey in 
her equally evident attempt to make the school a 
miniature world in her "The Children's Houses." 

Madame Montessori has probably attained to great- 
est success in her attempt to teach such formal sub- 
jects as reading, writing, and arithmetic. She has 
analyzed these subjects into elementary activities, 
which, when mastered by the child, prompt the child, 
with very little help from the teacher, to master the 
subjects in question by spontaneous synthesis. The 
exhibits which Madame Montessori and her enthusiastic 
disciples carry with them on their lecture tours cer- 
tainly justify the furor they produce, but can hardly 
be duplicated in languages less phonetic than the 
Itahan. Perhaps the greatest contribution of Madame 
Montessori to education is the new sympathy with de- 
fective and subnormal children which her devotion to 
the cause inspires in teachers, and the resulting stimulus 
to the study of individual children in our schools. 

Statistics and Mental Measurements. — Statistical 
reports, especially in the United States, came into 
prominent use in connection with the establishment of 
the National Bureau of Education and various sub- 
joined agencies. Through the praiseworthy initiative 
of Doctor Edward L. Thorndike of Columbia Uni- 
versity the statistical method has lately been devel- 



450 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

oped into a veritable laboratory method of solving 
problems of education. In his "Educational Psy- 
chology" he contends that individual differences and 
the factors which condition them may be accurately 
stated in quantitative description, and in his "Mental 
and Social Measurements" he outlines methods of 
procedure. The scales of measurement which he has 
devised as tests of handwriting, arithmetic, and com- 
position have prompted the devising of similar scales 
for spelling and drawing, and the likelihood is that it 
will not be long before educational experts will succeed 
in working out acceptable scales for all school work. 
In other words, this movement promises to retire all 
the older books on principles and methods of teaching 
to the ash-heap in favor of new treatments which sha,ll 
base both the content and the methods of instructioii 
on the findings of these experts. The day is not far 
distant when, in order to make them accessible to the 
rank and file of teachers, the necessary scales them- 
selves will be found in books on teaching, and the 
teacher's library must contain extensive references. 
Nor will this scientific impulse expend its force in the 
correction of the school curriculum and class methods 
of instruction. Even now the statistical method has 
been developed into scientific surveys of city schools 
and the details of administration. The general "re- 
construction" of education made necessary by the re- 
cent war will surely take the form of such surveys, and 
contribute largely to the differentiation of the rural 
schools from the city schools for which the natural con- 
ditions and course of events so loudly call. 

Prospects. — The outlook is full of promise. That 
we are on the very edge of a golden age immeasurably 



TENDENCIES 451 

more glorious than that of ancient Athens cannot well 
be doubted. This appears especially from the vast 
extension of educational opportunities. The great 
universities open their doors to multitudes of ambitious 
teachers through summer sessions, thus inspiring and 
equipping leaders, and, while doing this, they bring 
the cumulating wealth of expert information to a vast 
population in all the walks of life through correspon- 
dence courses and seasonal courses organized for the 
benefit of farmers and the followers of other vocations. 

In secondary education the "junior High School," 
combining the last two years of the elementary school 
with the first year of the high school, makes it possible to 
provide a multitude of boys and girls who cannot go 
through the high school with valuable vocational gui- 
dance and vocational training together with culture in 
studies which give such pupils control of higher things in 
life. At the same time, this "bridging" process, as sta- 
tistics would seem to show, encourages a very consider- 
able number of pupils to take the full course in our high 
schools for at least two reasons: first, because a some- 
what intimate identification with maturer minds acts as 
an inspiring stimulus, and second, because the three 
years in question afford the pupils a better perspective. 

Medical inspection and school sanitation, together 
with open-air schools for tubercular children, is still 
another extension of public privileges in our school 
system. 

A most encouraging example of the "extension" 
movement is the larger use of the school plant by 
making it the "community centre." This movement 
makes it possible for the whole neighborhood to con- 
tinue to go to school through public lectures and politi- 



452 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

cal debates, and, under efficient engineering, to re- 
main identified with healthful recreation in the form 
of dramatic amusements, pageantry, moving pictures, 
field-day contests, etc. 

The conflict between the claims of the individual and 
the social whole, and the dominance of the one set of 
claims over that of the other, so frequently the problem 
of the centuries, are, let us hope, about to find a true 
adjustment through proper recognition of the claims 
of God. That the ultimate triumph of Christian de- 
mocracy over the organized and intrenched forces of 
a godless autocracy will conspire with other forward 
movements to produce the most glorious age in educa- 
tion is our fervent prayer. 

In the meantime the Orient has become deeply in- 
terested in the Occident, and will surely become identi- 
fied with the great brotherhood of Christian nations, 
by adopting and adapting their school systems. The 
prophetic dreams of the great educational reformers of 
all centuries seem sure to find their highest fulfilment. 

REFERENCES 

1. Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education." 

2. Annual Reports of United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. 

3. Proceedings of the National Education Association. 

4. Year-Books of the National Society for the Scientific Study 
of Education. 

5. Graves' "History of Education," vol. III. 

6. Parker's "History of Modern Elementary Education." 

7. Cubberley's " Changing Conceptions of Education." 

8. Dewey's "Schools of To-Morrow." 

9. Montessori's "The Montessori Method." 
(10. Duggan's "History of Education." 

^1. WilHams' "History of Modern Education." 
12. Annual Reports of the Rockefeller Foundation. 



TENDENCIES 453 

QUESnONS 

1. What has been the "continued problem" in educational 
movements and what appears now to be in sight? 

2. What method of inquiry and enrichment of curriculum are 
known as the "scientific movement"? 

3. Examine the educative influences that helped to make 
Spencer. 

4. What did he try to prove in his " Principles of Psychology " ? 
Why does his book on "Education" deserve special study? 

5. At what conclusions did Spencer arrive in the first chapter 
of "Education" and by what argument? Challenge his con- 
clusions with counter-arguments. 

6. State the principles of pedagogy which Spencer undertook 
to establish by scientific argument in his second chapter. State 
his biological conception of education as "recapitulation," and 
argue it pro and con. Read Spencer himself on his last prin- 
ciple and report fully. 

7. For which of Rousseau's principles does Spencer contend in 
his chapter on moral education ? With what generally accepted 
principle does his conclusion conflict, and why is it serious when 
carried to logical limits? What do we accept with satisfaction 
in this chapter? 

8. Show that Spencer in his last chapter on education was at 
his best when he ceased to be merely utilitarian and rose to 
moral heights. What was the fine purpose of this chapter? 

9. Why, in spite of its weaknesses, must Spencer's book on 
education be looked upon as an invaluable contribution to the 
cause of education? 

10. Account for the present relation between employer and 
employee, and explain the new burden which this situation puts 
upon the school. 

11. What provisions have Germany, France, England, and 
the United States made for vocational education? 

12. What educational provisions for the production of com- 
mercial experts do these countries now make, and why? 

13. Why was so tardy a recognition accorded to agriculture 
in educational systems, and to what position of honor has it 
now attained in Europe? Trace the course of this movement 
fully in the United States. 



454 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

14. How has the loss of church control over education aflfected 
morals in France, Germany, England, and the United States? 

15. What new industrial relations have made it important 
to emphasize Christian morality in education? 

16. Why are denominational colleges such a powerful moral 
stimulus? How have other colleges recently manifested the 
sense of moral stewardship ? To what extent does this sense of 
stewardship account for the presence of Christian Associations 
in higher institutions? 

17. Why does concern for public morals produce respect for 
Sunday-schools ? 

18. How largely is it due to this sense of Christian steward- 
ship that there is so much co-operative effort in providing edu- 
cational facilities for unfortunates? 

19. Who was Edward Seguin? What have different coun- 
tries done with the stewardship which he made possible? 

20. Who was Abbe de I'Epee? What did he contribute to 
the cause of Christian stewardship in education? 

21. Who was Abbe Hauy? What did he contribute? Con- 
sult references on Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. 

22. Read up on the education of American negroes, Indians, 
reform schools, etc, 

23. What were some of the educative influences that helped 
to make Colonel Francis W. Parker? Explain the "Quincy 
movement" and Parker's work in Illinois. 

24. What educative influences helped to produce Doctor John 
Dewey? What was the reasoning process that prompted his 
Chicago "occupational experiment"? To what extent did the 
Dewey occupations satisfy the requirements of Froebel? Ex- 
plain the value of the larger selective freedom of the Dewey 
occupations. What is meant by the "problem method" which 
Dewey proposes? Connect the Rockefeller Foundation with 
Dewey. 

25. Study the making of Superintendent William Wirt of 
Gary, Indiana. How does his " work-study -play " system differ 
from the ordinary school-day ? Which of these three celebrated 
educational experiments — the Quincy movement, the Dewey 
occupations, the Gary system — satisfies the Rockefeller concep- 
tion of education most completely? Why? What accepted 
principles of education are embodied in the Rockefeller concep- 



TENDENCIES 455 

tion ? With which cherished ideals is the Rockefeller conception 
seriously out of harmony? 

26. Find, if you can, how the training and "world" of Madame 
Montessori helped to make her an educational reformer. Ex- 
plain the "didactic apparatus" which she employs and "The 
Children's Houses" which she has organized. Explain her 
method of teaching such subjects as reading, writing, and arith- 
metic. Examine her claims and contributions, and give her 
full credit. 

27. Who is Doctor Edward L. Thorndike? What are his 
"scales of measurement" and what are the purposes? What 
educational problems are capable of solution by means of sci- 
entific surveys? Refer to some celebrated surveys. 

28. What is the promise of our educational outlook? What 
"extension movements" confirm this promise? What New Age 
is in sight? 



INDEX 



Abb6 de I'Epee, 443. 
Abbd Haiiy, 443. 
Abelard, 136. 
Academy, Plato's, 66. 
"Advancement of Learning," Ba- 
con's, 261. 
Agricola, 168. 

Agricultural movement, 437. 
Alcuin, 131. 
Alexandria, 78, 115. 
American colonies, 374. 

Middle, 378. 

New England, 381. 

Southern, 375. 
Ancients, i. 
Animal worship, 4. 
Apollonius, 95. 
Apperception, 320. 

Formal steps, 321. 
Aquinas, 136. 
Architecture — 

Egypt, 6. 

Greece, 49. 
Aristotle, 71. 
Arnold, Thomas, 367. 
Ascham, 174. 
Athens, 55. 

Bacon, 260. 

Barnard, Henry, 405. 

Basedow, 298. 

Bell, Andrew, 358. 

Boccaccio, 161. 

Bourbons, restored, 349. 

Brahmanism, 19. 

Brethren of the Common Life, 166. 

Buddha, 20. 

Burgdorf, 311. 

Burgher schools, 142, 145. 



Calvin, 195. 
Cambridge, 174, 368. 
Carter, John G., 396. 
Castes — 

Egypt, 5. 

India, 18. 
Catechists, 115. 
Cathedral schools, 127. 
Cato, 87. 

Chantry schools, 145. 
Charity schools of England, 35. 
Charlemagne, 128. 
Che-Hwang- te, 14. 
Chinese, 12. 
Chivalry, 139. 
Christ, loi. 

Christian Brothers, 233. 
Christian education, 100. 
Chrysoloras, 161. 
Church Fathers, 117. 
Church schools, 122. 
Cicero, 94. 

Ciceronianism, 164, 172. 
Comenius, 272. 
Commercial movement, 435. 
Compulsory attendance, 186. 
"Conduct of Schools," by Rollin, 

235- 
Confucius, 12. 

Crescent of Mohammed, 132. 
Crotona, 63. 
Crusades, 139. 
Cynics, 76. 
Cyrus, 28. 

Dante, 159. 
"Decameron," 161. 
Defectives, 443. 
Democracy of Athens, 55. 



4S7 



458 



INDEX 



Denominational colleges, 440. 

Dewey, John, 445. 

"Didactica Magna" of Comenius, 

273- 
"Divine Comedy" of Dante, 158. 

Duns Scotus, 136. 

"Education," Spencer's, 425. 
"Education of Girls," Pension's, 

224. 
Efficiency, 338. 
Egyptians, 2. 
Elementary schools — 
After the Reformation — 
England, 365. 
France, 352. 
Germany, 344. 
United States, 415. 
Assyrio-Babylon, 32. 
Before the Reformation — 
Catechetical schools, 115. 
Parish schools, 127. 
Chinese, 14. 
Egyptian, 7. 
Greek — 
Athens, 57. 
Sparta, 52. 
Hebrew, 40. 
Hindu, 22. 
Persian, 27. 
Roman, 89. 
"Emile," Rousseau's, 294. 
England, 355. 
Epicurus, 76. 
Erasmus, 171. 
Esoteric, 64. 
Exoteric, 64. 

Experiments in education, 444. 
Parker, Francis, 495. 

Family — 
Athens, 57. 
Christian, 107. 



Hebrew, 40. 

Rome, 85. 
Fellenberg, 316. 
Pension, 224. 
Festivals of the Jews, 40. 
Feudalism, 138. 
France, 347. 
Francke, 239. 
Froebel, 333. 

"Gargantua," Rabelais', 251. 

Gary System, 447. 

Germany, 339. 

Girls' schools after the Reforma- 
tion, 201. 

Gods- 
Egypt, 3. 
Greece, 47. 
Persia, 26. 
Rome, 83. 

"Great Teacher," Christ, 103. 

Greeks, 45. 

Grocyn, 174. 

Guild schools, 144. 

Guyenne, 166. 

Gymnasiums, Germany, 203. 

Harvard College, 382. 
Hebrews, 35. 
Herbart, 317. 
Hieronymians, 167. 
Higher education — 

Athens, 59, 61. 

China, 15. 

Egypt, 8. 

England, 368. 

France, 354. 

Germany, 346. 

India, 22. 

Jews, 40. 

Persia, 28. 

United States, 417. 
Hindus, 18. 
Hohenzollems, 339. 



INDEX 



459 



Horace, 88. 
Humanism, 158. 

Ideals — 

Athenian, 56. 

Christian, 105. 

Egyptian, 7. 

Hindu, 21. 

Persian, 27. 

Roman, 84, 88. 

Shemite, 32. 
Hebrew, 39. 

Spartan, 50, 52. 
Immortality, 4, 9, 16, 20, 26, 39, 

48, 65, 105. 
Infant schools — 

England, 361. 

France, 347. 
Influence of realism, 286. 
"Institute," La Salle's, 234. 
"Institutes of Oratory," Quintil- 

ian's, 97. 
Irony of Socrates, 65. 

Jansenists, 219. 
"Janua," Comenius, 274. 
Jeromites, 167. 
Jesuit schools, 209. 
Jews, 39. 

Kindergarten, Froebel's, 328. 
Kindergartens, 332. 
Knight schools, 140. 
Knighthood, 141. 
Knox, John, 197. 

La Salle, 234. 
Lancaster, Joseph, 359. 
"Letter to Mayors," 184. 
"Liberal Arts," 125. 
Libraries, 188. 
Linacre, 174. 

"Loci Communes," Melanch- 
thon's, 191. 



Locke, 279. 

Creed, 281. 

Formal discipline, 284. 
London, 369. 
Louis Napoleon, 356. 
Louis Philippe, 349. 
Loyola, 207. 
Luther, 180. 
Lyceum, Aristotle's, 72. 

Madras System, 358. 
Mann, Horace, 399. 
Massachusetts after 1776, 394. 
Melanchthon, 189. 
Mental measurements, 449. 
"Methodus Novissima," Come- 
nius', 276. 
Middle States after 1776, 390, 409. 
Milton, 264. 
Mohammed, 132. 
Monasticism, 122. 
Monitorial schools, 358. 
Montaigne, 255. 
Montcssori method, 448. 
Morals — 

Athenian, 58. 

Chinese, 16. 

Egyptian, 5. 

Greek, 49, 53, 58. 

Hebrew, 42. 

Hindu, 20. 

Persian, 26. 

Roman, 83, 92. 

Spartan, 54. 
Mulcaster, 257. 
Music — 

Athenian, 58. 

Monkish, 125. 

Reformers, 185, 

Spartan, 54. 

Napoleon, 348. 

National Convention of France, 
348. 



460 



INDEX 



National systems of modern educa- 
tion, 336, 414. 
Naturalism, 290. 
Neuhof, 307. 

"New Atlantis," Bacon's, 263. 
New England after 1776, 395, 408. 
New South, 413. 
New York after 1776, 378, 390. 
New York City, 392. 
Normal schools — 

Germany — 
Konigsberg, 318. 
Prussia, 340. 

Switzerland, 313. 

United States, 402. 
"Novum Organum," Bacon's, 262. 

Ogden movement, 444. 
Oracles of the Greeks, 49. 
"Orbis Pictus," Comenius, 276. 
Oriental nations, ancient, i. 
Overseers, Persian, 28. 
Oxford, 173, 368. 

Palace schools, Charlemagne, 129. 

Parish schools, 127. 

Parker, Francis W., 333, 445. 

Patriotism, 337. 

Pedagogium, Francke's, 241. 

Pedagogue, 57. 

Pennsylvania after 1776, 379, 393, 

409. 
Peripatetics, 73. 
Persians, 25. 
Pestalozzi, 305. 
Pestalozzianism, 315. 
Petrarch, 160. 
Pfefferkom, 170. 

Philanthropinum, Basedow's, 300. 
Philanthropy, 336. 
Phoenicians, 35. 
Physical culture — 
Athens, 58. 



Knight schools, 141. 

Sparta, 52. 
Pietism, 237, 
Plato, 67. 

"Politics," Aristotle's, 73. 
Port Royalists, 219. 
"Prseceptor Germaniae," 190. 
Princes' schools after the Reforma- 
tion, 202. 
Private schools of England, 367. 
Prophets, 40. 

Psychological movement, 305. 
Pythagoras, 63. 

Quintilian, 96. 

Rabelais, 251. 
Ratich, 267. 
Realism, 247. 

Himianistic, 248. 

Sense, 249. 

Social, 249. 
Reformation, 178. 
Rein, Professor, 322. 
Religion — 

Egyptian, 3. 

Greek, 47. 

Hebrew, 39. 

Persian, 26. 

Roman, 83. 
Religious Moral Movement, 438. 
Renaissance — 

England, 173. 

France, 165. 

Germany, 166. 

Italy, 157. 
"Republic," Plato's, 69. 

Third French, 351. 
Reuchlin, 169. 
Revival of learning, 158. 

Italy, 159. 
Rollin, 228. 
Romans, 81. 
Rousseau, 291. 



INDEX 



461 



Sacred games of the Greeks, 50. 
Saracens 132. 

"Saxony School Plan," 191. 
Sceptics, 76. 
Scholasticism, 135. 
"Scholemaster," Aschara's, 174. 
Schools of Greek philosophy, 75. 
Secondary (higher) schools — 

Chinese, 15. 

Egyptian, 8. 

English, 366. 

French, 353. 

German, 344. 

Greek, 59. 

Hebrew, 40. 

Hindu, 22. 

Persian, 28, 

Roman, 90. 

United States, 416. 
Seguin, 442. 
Seneca, 95. 
Shemites, 31. 

SociaUzing movement, 334. 
Socrates, 64. 
Sophists, 61. 
Southern States after 1776, 389, 

I 411- 

Sparta, 51. 

Spencer, Herbert, 424 

Spener, Philip, 238. 

Stanz, 309. 

State education — 

Persia, 27. 

Sparta, 51. 

Prussia, 339. 
Stewardship, 440. 
Stoics, 76. 

Strasburg gymnasiiun, 204. 
Sturm, John, 204. 
Sunday-schools — 

England, 357. 

Modern, 441. 



Tendencies in modern education, 

423. 
Thaddeus Stevens, 395. 
Town schools of New England, 

383- 
"Tractate on Education." Rollin, 
229. 

United States, 374, 
Universities — 

Greek, 77. 

Hebrew, 40. 

Middle Ages, 146. 

Post-Reformation, 215, 216. 

Roman, 92. 

Virginia after 1776, 387. 
Vittorino, 162. 
Vocational movement — 

Fellenberg, 316. 

Modern, 432, 

Washington, Booker T., 444. 
Western States, 397, 411. 
William and Mary College, 377. 
Woman — 

Athenian, 60. 

Christian, 107. 

Egyptian, &. '^ 

Hebrew, 40. 

Hindu, 23. 

Jansenist, 22^. 

Reformation, 201. 

Spartan, 54. 

Xenophon, 65. 

Yverdun, 312. 

Ziller, 322. 
Zoroaster, 27. 
Zwingli, 194. 



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